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
Just doing a quick one before I eventually move on to my Cyberpunk 2020 keep and a set from a certain delightful and fucking insane shonen I finished recently...
Spoilers for the Hisoka's Past one-shot by the by.
What's the work?
Hunter × Hunter, Yoshihiro Togashi's masterpiece of a shonen, has come through here frequently. In short, people can become "Hunters" who use a force called Nen to explore the world, hunt treasure, and fight others.
What is less well-known is that Tokyo Ghoul creator Sui Ishida wrote and published a "semi-canon" one-shot—with Approval of God—exploring the past of everyone's favorite Monster Clown Hisoka Morow. Hisoka's Past is a 70-page story chronicling how Hisoka discovered Nen and developed his signature technique. Now, obviously, Hisoka's not gonna count, being as he's an Ax-Crazy pedophile whose depravity and cruelty have only increased as the manga has gone on, but there is another Serial Killer to look at in his past...
In short? Hisoka is recruited by a circus troupe after being found unconscious on the side of the road during a time fraught by a notorious serial murderer whose face changes every time he kills. This troupe has a stand-out ringmaster named Moritonio, who uses seemingly supernatural abilities... and it's no surprise who the murderer is.
Who is Moritonio?
Moritonio is the affable and thrilling ringmaster of the Moritonio Troupe, and a performer par excellence who uses Nen to delight his audiences through illusion. Moritonio teaches his protege Abaki using this talent— and later, when he realizes Hisoka can sense his aura, he takes the enigmatic youth under his wing as well and trains him as Hisoka slowly causes the rest of the troupe to lead through being superior to them all in their own acts. Moritonio is also, however, the infamous serial killer "Hundred-Faced John Doe" who has been killing indiscriminately. Using his Scarf Ace technique to change his face so the law will never catch him, he has used his Nen abilities to supernaturally crush his victims, even attacking his own protege Abaki only to be foiled by Hisoka and escape deftly.
After the performance of a lifetime, Moritonio and Hisoka celebrate their victory... only for Hisoka to reveal that he's figured out Moritonio's identity through examining their shared techniques. Moritonio takes it in stride and admits the truth: He's a natural thrill-seeker addicted to seeing people's faces in shock. With nothing that induces that like killing, Moritonio found himself killing his sister at a young age. Having tried to become a Hunter in hopes of achieving his joy without murder and failing due to the poor luck of having to contend with a mysterious Hunter (implicitly Gon's father) in their exam year, where everyone else was crushed, Moritonio founded the circus troupe to try and find a humane way to get his fix... it's not enough. Nothing can match the shock on a person's face as they realize they're about to die. Hisoka admits he doesn't have any moral issue with what Moritonio's done, but that he's itching to get his own fix— a good fight will do.
The two break into a Nen-powered duel of wits. Moritonio very nearly manages to destroy Hisoka through quick thinking and unleashing his true ability—the Blood Magnet power that lets him form magnetic pillars that can crush his opponents in between them all. Moritonio is ultimately foiled, however, when Hisoka reveals he had deduced Moritonio's technique by examining his circus performances and that he had countered it with his own Nen Ability: Bungee Gum, which has the properties of both rubber and gum. Sticking the gum on the pillars as Moritonio nearly crushes him, Hisoka sends the pillars flying back toward his mentor, killing him.
Before leaving, Hisoka preserves Moritonio's identity by changing his face back to the recognizable one of John Doe, meaning society at large will never discover who the serial killer was.
Is Moritonio magnificent?
This is the man who trained Hisoka. Moritonio's an audacious and performative mastermind who's been killing people without trouble for a long time, evading the law right under their noses while constantly revealing himself and changing his identity so they can never catch him. He's a great teacher to Hisoka who has been using his techniques in plain sight and letting people be fooled. He's great at sleight of hand, illusion, and deception, not to mention genuinely Affably Evil and goes out having a thoughtful fight with an apprentice who only found him out through being a prodigy himself and only defeated him through using Awesomeness by Analysis and an Indy Ploy to hit him with his own attack... and never once did the authorities or even Abaki, who was his longest-running student, discover Moritonio's identity.
Is Moritonio bad?
Well, obviously, being a Serial Killer. But the thing is... Moritonio's an unrepentant monster, but he's a genuinely friendly one. His killings are indiscriminate and not particularly cruel, not to mention mostly offscreen, and his love of performance is absolutely genuine. It's also established that he tried multiple means to achieve his goals without killing, but that it's a genuine compulsion that he's found himself unable to resist. He's willing to kill Abaki and Hisoka, but it's clear that he's not wholly uncaring about them and loved teaching them, and overall he's genuinely charming and levelheaded. Even his own murder of his sister as a boy was driven by compulsion and not sadism. I'd compare him to an even lighter Yoshikage Kira; in the end, he's driven by an intrinsic nature and made genuine attempts to resist.
Plus, he's not nearly as bad as... just about every other major Hunter x Hunter villain, including some we have listed. The Phantom Troupe and Hisoka himself are both gonna handily outdo him in terms of body count and sadism, not to mention potentially apocalyptic threats that crop up later or the other major Serial Killer in the ongoing manga, Tserriednich, who is far more cruel and vicious in his deeds. Moritonio's a Serial Killer, but he tops out at standard-issue murder via crushing to try and sate himself, and that's it.
Conclusion?
In a manga that's not Hunter x Hunter I think there might be some genuine contention, but in this setting?
Keep. (We will probably need to make a non-canon section for him).
Not the Eye
![[tup]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/thumbs_up_emote.png "[thumb up]"){kind=small}
Moritonio
Jogo
Moritonio
for Moritonio.
Goku Black
moritono
Moritonio
great catch Riley
Glad you enjoyed this masterpiece as well
Actually have another candidate in mind from the series for MB so hope you all look forward to that
Edited by YorkobeShounen on Mar 27th 2024 at 2:18:19 AM
I’ll take a potato chip… and EAT IT!
I am really sorry for being so pushy but please can I have some thoughts on my possible EP for Kondo Isami?
Ultimate Moral Compass
Moritonio
Unofficial co-Wiki Curator for Magnificent Bastard
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Make sure to put it in the drafts page. That we can also implement some changes if necessary.
The MILF Virus
I got a candidate to propose, and it's someone not traditional. Why not take a look Xenosaga and check on this candidate, Joachim Mizarhi.
Setting:
Xenosaga is a JRPG trilogy from the PS2 about a space opera between space colony, the unknown ghost Gnosis, a extremeist group called U-TIC, and key players of a great space war fourteen year ago, called the Old Miltia Conflict. Starring Shion Uzuki and her robot KOS-MOS, they deeply linked to the events which involve the entire universe. The candidate is neither, rather a key person, father of MOMO, party member and the first Realian of the new branch in the current events.
Joachim Mizarhi, the inventor of Realians, space androids, and a key member of the Old Miltia Conflict, the man deemed responsible as the head researcher for the Zohar, and the Song of Nephilim two key factors of the game. However there's more meets the eye.
Who is Joachim Mizarhi and his actions?
Joachim Mizarhi is the father of Realians and the daddy of MOMO. Known as a mad man for his actions in the Old Militia Conflict, where he had the planet destroyed, Joachim is a scientist he knew more then he let on. Originally finding a cure to his daughter's Sakura illness, he first created the Mizrahi Neuroscience Institute to find it, playing in the role in creating the U.R.T.V. having worked Dimitri Yuriev. Benefiting the Galaxy Federation, Joachim broke off after the Michtam incident, where the Federation experimented on the Zohar summoning Gnosis which killed the planet.
Forming U-TIC with his branch, Joachim have vowed to solve the mysteries of the Zohar to prevent future happenings again, taking in Kevin Winnicot the only survivor of Michtam, to his experiments with U-TIC. Having experimented with the Zohar and those connected to it, Joachim began to learn things about the universe fate and set things to stop it, his main is hiding the Y-Data in his daughter MOMO and entrusting her the future of the world. It held key data like the Lexington, the location of Lost Jerusalem, Mary Magdalene's soul, and Vessels of Anima setting course the future to stop the end of the Universe.
Getting involved in the Old Miltia conflict, Joachim figured how corrupt U-TIC became and vowed to stop them. He went to try stopping Dr. Sellers and cast the Zohar into the Abyss, and seeing the worst case scenario decide to sacrifice the planet. He overloaded the Song of Nephilim despite the destruction and enact his plan to seal the Gnosis, U-DO, and the Zohar to another dimension, citing Revelation 20 in his final moments to make himself seem mad, when truthfully he was a secret hero. In Shion's subconscious, in a conversation with MOMO, Joachim reveals he planned this to guarantee a future for her, and her generation for his past sins. U-TIC became corrupt under him and vowed to make it right.
In the current day, he's seen in the Beach of Nothingness with Shion, revealing his intended plan was to revive Sakura, but decided to save the future from destruction. He then hints knowing Shion's dark secret and how to overcome it, hoping she overcomes her hatred of her father and the future, ending satisfied knowing he likely set the future for his love ones.
Magnificence?
The brilliant man who discovered the Realians, Joachim is seen as one of most intelligent men in the world, heralded by many despite his reputation. He was one of the architect for the creation of the U-TIC branch to conduct his research, creating many of their modern tech sensibilities. He's one of the few to discover the secrets of the Zohar, when most would fail or fall to madness. And he made the future of the Realians with his artificial daughter MOMO, after his experiments were used for evil. His ending was also magnificent, sacrificing himself to seal the Gnosis to protect the world and to stop U-TIC's ambition, setting the world to the right course, implications he knew of it's impending doom trying to prevent it.
One of the key issues is him being tricked by U-TIC, the group he started becoming corrupted after being connected to Ormus, an ancient zealot conspiracy, reducing his magnificence. However Joachim is actually aware of the group and when it became too late, he did his damndest to stop them even if it meant his life, and post-death, his actions still carry in their fall, having trusted the future to MOMO and her friends as he expected and his work used to defeat U-TIC in the future.
He's also quite the philosphical and charming man, showing his love and support for his daughters MOMO and Sakura, and manage to undo many of his biggest mistakes in a single swoop.
Too Evil?
The deciding factor that might go against him. Joachim is not a bad man, could even be seen as a hero, but the actions he does is still extreme dragging innocent people. He had an entire planet destroyed dragging soldiers and potential civilians in it to protect the world from the Gnosis, but still killed many. He was also part of U-TIC and its experiments, even though he never intended to go extreme, he subjected a lot of people in painful experiments even thought he tried to reduce it, it end up making the Song of Nephilim one of the worst inventions in the setting, having been used to create disasters. He did consider himself too bad to reach where his daughter is in his final moments.
He did it for good purposes, protect the world from U-DO, understand the Zohar, and create the Realians, but his actions are still extreme enough you could see him as a bastard. Extreme enough to be called a mad man in modern history in Xenosaga.
Final Verdict:
Quite unorthodox, but a fitting candidate for the trope.
"Are you the devil?" "Don't compare to me to those small fry" - Mir
A Girl, Just One of Many Kinds
Sure to Joachim
- Grand Theft Auto IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony: Luis Fernando Lopez is the personal bodyguard and business partner of “Gay” Tony Price, who uses his collected attitude and craftiness to get him and his friends out of trouble. Working for Mori Kibbutz and Rocco Pelosi to pay off Tony’s debts, Luis also works with Yusuf Amir to pull off grand heists, with Luis successfully stealing helicopters and a train cart. Deciding to fully get Tony out of debt, Luis works to obtain two million dollars worth of diamonds, personally going to get it back from Niko Bellic and Johnny Klebitz when they stole it from him, before he manages to trade them back to save Gracie. When betrayed by Ray Bulgarin for the diamonds, Luis refuses to betray and kill Gay Tony, deciding to risk his life to help him and personally destroys Ray’s operation all on his own. Confronting and killing Bulgarin on a private jet, Luis jumps out of the blown up jet and reunites with Tony, with the two mending their friendship and deciding to restart their successful businesses.
Goku Black
Joachim
for Joachim Mizarhi.
Jogo
Joachim
Ultimate Moral Compass
- Takeshi's Challenge: The old man appears before the salaryman at a karaoke bar to hand him a treasure map. Using the salaryman to solve the map’s arbitrary riddle in order to reveal the treasure’s location, should the old man not be killed, he will secretly follow the salaryman to the treasure, killing him at the end of his adventure so that he can claim the riches for himself.
I’ll take a potato chip… and EAT IT!
Not the Eye
I'm Sad Frogerson.
Hey everybody, got a new proposal for you guys as I take a stab at a Star Wars candidate.
Specifically, we're taking a look at Star Wars Infinities, an official What If? series that takes a look at the Original Trilogy and shows what would have happened had things taken a slightly different path. I'm focusing on their take of A New Hope, which ask what would have happened had Luke failed to destroy the Death Star at the end of the film. Things go from bad to worse, as Leia is captured by the Empire and groomed to become Palpatine's new apprentice. However, Luke is sent to train under a certain backwards talking Jedi to help bring balance to the Force.
Yup, we're doing this one.
Who Is He and What Does He Do?
Yoda is a former Jedi Master and one of the members of the Jedi Council. Just like in the canon timeline, he went into exile after Senator Palpatine seized control of the Galactic Senate and purged the Jedi Order with Order 66. Yoda spent the next few decades hiding out in the swamp planet of Dagobah while the Empire grew in strength. Things diverge when the ghost of Obi-Wan instructs Luke to head to Dagobah following the Battle of Yavin. Yoda finds Luke and his friends, hiding his identity just like when he first met Luke in The Empire Strikes Back. However, Han realizes Yoda's just stringing them along, recognizing a fellow conman when he sees it. Yoda senses that Luke has started to drift towards the Dark Side of the Force following the destruction of the Rebel Base on Yavin and Leia's supposed death. Given the dire circumstances, he agrees to teach Luke in the ways of the Force and avoid the temptations of the Dark Side.
Five years later, Luke has learned to properly channel the Force under Yoda's teachings, but is disturbed by the visions he's been receiving about Leia and his father. Han returns to Dagobah to tell Luke that Leia is still alive and is now working for the Empire. Yoda reveals that Darth Vader is actually he and Leia's father, and he withheld this from Luke out of fear he would be pushed further towards the Dark Side. Luke plans to confront Leia and Yoda decides to accompany them, claiming a ride in the Millenium Falcon would be suitable payment for feeding Han and Chewbacca.
Yoda instructs Han to drop him and R2-D2 at the Death Star, and bids farewell to Luke. Yoda uses the Jedi Mind Trick on the Stormtroopers that confront him to convince them he's there to see Tarkin, hilariously giving them his speech pattern in the process. Upon finding Tarkin, Yoda Force chokes him and demands he take to the control room. R2 soon hacks into the Death Star's control systems and blasts the Imperial fleet orbiting Coruscant. Yoda soon contacts Palpatine, who recently had Leia and Vader turn on him. Palpatine boasts that his troops have already disabled the Death Star's weapons systems and demands that Yoda face him in person.
Yoda... agrees. In fact, he's coming down right now. And so, Yoda sacrifices himself by piloting the freakin' Death Star straight towards the surface of Coruscant and crashes it kamikaze-style right on top of Palpatine's base, taking out the Imperial capital and no doubt most of Coruscant along with it.
Yeah, I don't think Palpatine will somehow return from that one.
Is He Charming, Charismatic, and Good on His Feet?
This is Yoda we're talking about. The years spent on Dagobah have given him time to reflect on his failures during the Clone Wars, and he takes great care to make sure Luke doesn't succumb to the same temptations that claimed his father. Like in the Original Trilogy, he still manages to be comedic while never losing the wise and dignified position of a former Jedi Master. What makes Yoda stand out here is that he actually gets involved in taking on the Empire and effortlessly makes his way through the Death Star without needing to use a lightsaber. And in the end, his sacrifice is what ultimately cripples the Empire to the point of no return, helping ensure a new era of peace to the galaxy.
Is He a Bastard? Too Much of a Bastard?
Well, he does lie to Luke for years about his relationship to Leia and Vader, something that has caused Luke much grief. Although, Yoda does justify himself claiming that he was worried such knowledge would drive Luke towards the Dark Side if he was not ready. Yoda also Force chokes Tarkin to get him to take over the Death Star, but it's Tarkin. Not much else to add.
Oh right, I almost forgot. Yoda crashes the Death Star on the surface of Coruscant, no doubt wiping out countless lives if not causing an outright extinction level event to take out the Emperor. Granted, we don't know exactly how many people died, but I think we can guess crashing something the size of a small moon onto the surface of a populated planet must've killed a lot of people, and not necessarily all of them Imperial forces. We don't even know if Coruscant is still around after Yoda's little joyride. It's ultimately betrayed as a victory for good and the implications are mostly glossed over, but we get some nice panels of the Death Star crashing into the surface of Coruscant. If not an extinction-level event, we can at least generously put on the same level as the destruction of Jedha from Rogue One.
Competition?
There's Palpatine of course, who has Vader groom Leia into seeing the benefits of the Empire and runs a much more efficient regime without the Rebel Alliance to stop him. Of course, he's still an evil prick and suffers a Villainous Breakdown when Leia and Vader betray him. And while he gets one up on Yoda by having his men disable the weapons systems on the Death Star, Yoda gets the upper hand by crushing him like a pancake. I think we know who wins here.
Verdict?
Yoda saves the galaxy by crashing the Death Star kamikaze-style on Palpatine's head. Yeah, I'm thinking that deserves a .
Very surprised to Yoda
Moritonio, Joachim
Not the Eye
Amused to Yoda
for Yoda.
Lies and Violence!
My main concern with this Yoda is that the "bastard" qualifications are mostly Fridge Horror. As you say, the implications of crashing into the planet are brushed over, and Coruscant here seems to be portrayed as primarily an Imperial occupied world. I looked at the comic a while ago, but IIRC there aren't any innocent civilians depicted on the planet or anything, just soldiers and loyal officials.
I might be overthinking things, but I'm not sure it's emphasized enough as a ruthless gambit, aside from very briefly putting the heroes at risk—and even then, you could argue Yoda knew they would escape.
- * Moriarty the Patriot: Colonel Sebastian Moran is the charismatic right-hand man of William Moriarty. Moran helps facilitate all of Moriarty's best gambits with stylish grace, such as using his sharpshooting techniques to frame an aristocrat's murder as a suicide/accident or setting fires all across London to unite the city. A brilliant mastermind in his own right, Moran deduces the source of guns being used to fund the Afghan-British war and sets about dismantling the operation. He feigns that he has switched sides to the conspirators and seemingly kills his ally, only to fake her death and get her to evacuate all their potential victims. He then totally breaks the conspirators before Killing them. Even with Moriarty's seeming death, Moran continues to faithfully serve his mission to rid the world of the corrupt aristocracy and when he discovers Moriarty is alive, happily retires to faithfully serve him once more.
"That's right mortal. By channeling my divine rage into power, I have forged a new instrument in which to destroy you."