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}
to Machiavillain.
Machiavillain
Jogo
Machiavillain
I’ll take a potato chip… and EAT IT!
Machiavillain
for Machiavillain.
to Machiavillain. I don't think a work's overall quality affects whether a candidate is valid. I mean Polaris counts but the Little Panda Fighter (the cheap film he originates from) sucks.
Machiavillain.
Unofficial co-Wiki Curator for Magnificent Bastard
~True Chaos Nice writeup, but there's a rule that a writeup for a character may only be considered if they managed to get approval (5 upvotes) within 3 days of the effortpost being made.
MB Pending | MB Drafts | MB Dates
But he did. Didn't you count?
Edited by TrueChaos on Apr 20th 2024 at 10:37:25 AM
Lies and Violence!
Megamind guy.
What's the work?
Catwoman: Lonely City is a DC Black Label miniseries about Selina Kyle, the titular Catwoman, who is released from prison a decade after a horrific incident that saw the deaths of both Batman and the Joker. The Gotham she returns to has changed immensely; Two-Face, claiming his sanity has been restored, has become fascist mayor of the city, gentrifying large portions of it to convert Gotham into a police state.
Selina doesn't care much about this, instead focusing on the mystery of Bruce's last request for her: to find something called "Orpheus." Naturally, the best place to look would be the Batcave... which is sealed up from Bruce's quadrillion security measures and contingencies. And so she recruits a team of some of her fellow rogues to bust in.
Who are Catwoman and the Riddler?
This will primarily be about Selina, since Nygma is a supporting character. I just didn’t feel like making a second post. Anyway!
- Upon being released, Selina immediately begins working to reestablish her rep, connecting with old allies like Killer Croc and attempting heists. Though her years of inexperience/age mean she has to scuttle a few jobs, she manages to steal some old evidence boxes from the police—including the pipe of the late Commissioner Gordon, which she gives to a retired Batgirl in exchange for some info on the Batcave's location.
- Selina's crew sets up shop in a fancy hotel; years ago, she posed as duchess who "lost" some jewels from the hotel's safe, and the manager has bent over backwards to make it up to her ever since. And, while booking her room, she happens to run into a familiar face...
- The Riddler himself, long since moved past his ridiculous old gimmick (which he blames on cocaine) after the death of his wife, has become a successful grifter and blackmailer alongside his daughter Edie. Selina runs into the pair pulling a scam at the hotel, Edie pretending to be a famous actress or something while Nygma, as her "manager", loudly demands to be moved to an empress suite that isn't subject to an apparent rat infestation. The two former villains reconnect, and Selina ropes them into her plans.
- The next job? A heist of some environmentally unfriendly fertilizer samples from Ace Chemicals, as payment for Poison Ivy joining. Selina and Edie sneak in, give the samples to Croc (who can safely swim in and out of the company's drain system), then try to sneak out—that goes badly, but they climb to the top of the building and parachute off to make their escape.
- For the next part of the plan, they need a sample of Clayface's mud. Ivy makes a massive tree grow right next to Arkham Asylum, while Nygma and Selina pose as a tree removal company to take it down before any villains get the idea to use it to escape. Inside the Asylum, crew take the sample and hand it off to Selina through a window while she's working on the tree; the guards eventually realize something's up, but the crew remote controls their truck to drive away, leading the guards on a wild goose chase while they escape in an abandoned underground tunnel network Nygma's been using to traverse the city for years.
- Unfortunately, Two-Face's goons somehow predicted this and were waiting for them. Selina sees them coming and has Croc bust through the tunnel walls to escape, though he's killed in the process. Nygma manages to recruit Jason Blood of all people, host to Etrigan the Demon, as replacement muscle, having recognized an allegedly run-of-the-mill artifact at a museum as a housing for the powerful Helmet of Fate; they steal it and deliver it to Blood for safekeeping, securing his help as thanks. Still, Selina's guilt over Croc leads to her kicking the Nygmas off the team to keep them safe.
- With some DNA Nygma had taken earlier from the police commissioner's coffee cup, the Clayface sludge is used to make a mask of the commissioner, which Selina has Blood use to briefly trick the guards around Wayne Manor into leaving their posts. After that, it's a matter of navigating some traps through the Batmobile entrance until they make it to the Batcave and find Orpheus: a modified Lazarus pit, capable of resurrecting someone without insanity, but only for a week or two. The entire mystery of the project was just Bruce wanting to live even a few days longer to continue protecting the city. Man needs therapy, don't think that's a surprise.
- Unfortunately again, Two-Face is on their heels. Selina's early release from prison was arranged for the sole purpose of leading him to the Batcave, where he can put all Bruce's tech to use ensuring his fascistic rule over Gotham. Selina uses various trophies scattered around the cave—Mr. Freeze's gun, Scarecrow's fear gas—to fight off Two-Face's minions, while Ivy sacrifices herself to bring down the cavern. A despondent Selina begins destroying and erasing all the powerful tech stuff as she awaits her fate...
- Only to be met by the Nygmas, who just went through the unprotected front door while all this chaos went down. Eddie managed to figure out the Batcave's location behind Bruce's grandfather clock, and how to open it—setting the clock hands to the time of the Wayne murders, because Bruce really needs therapy—and the three escape. Etrigan had to teleport out to fight Klarion the Witch Boy, go with it.
- The trio are met by an enraged Two-Face at the front lawn, and he's clearly losing it. Selina plays on this, goading him into flipping his coin: heads, she lives and can give him the only remaining access to Bruce's spyware, which will deactivate with her death. Tails, he shoots her and loses everything. Two-Face's psychosis distracts him long enough for Edie to disarm him, and the three escape.
- Long story short, Two-Face is arrested, Selina and her crew begin training for more heists and the new mayor—Batgirl—offers to employ them in taking down more rich assholes otherwise untouchable by the law.
Mitigating factors?
Selina's suffering from the typical grumpy, pushing everyone away, kind of hates herself attitudes that modern media has been giving to all older returning characters, but it's nothing too extreme. She's as excellent a thief as always, capable of devising brilliant schemes and making quick getaways when foiled. The comic ends with her confidence fully restored, looking at the city skylines with glee as she remarks it looks like the promise of jewels.
Plus, we get flashbacks to her standard thief days, so no issues with bastardness.
Nygma, for his lesser focus, is just as good as always. Not only does he have an excellent explanation for the weirdness of his past capers ("Look, I was doing a lot of coke then" ![[lol]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lol2v12_4863.png "[lol]"){kind=small}
), he's portrayed as a cunning con artist who is able to come up with quick fixes to whatever is in their way, ultimately proving Selina's saving grace.
Jogo
Catwoman and Riddler
for Selina and Nygma.
Not the Eye
Machiavillain, Catwoman and Riddler
Edited by EmperorGeode on Apr 21st 2024 at 1:53:23 AM
Yes to the Bat Rogues
I’ll take a potato chip… and EAT IT!
Lonely City duo
Here with another EP that took me by surprise, found myself thinking about the film and realized "yeah, there's a candidate here"
What is the work?
The work is Bowfinger, a satirical buddy comedy starring Steve Martin and Eddie Murphy. The film's plot involves a B-list director who has the idea to make a film with an A-list star without him realizing he's in it.
Who is the character?
The character is Bobby Bowfinger, the titular protagonist.
What does he do?
Bowfinger is a director who has never caught a break and is nearing 50. An amateur screenwriter brings him a script he thinks is fantastic and he decides to go all-in on getting it made before he crests the metaphorical hill. After talking to a producer, he gets a handshake deal to distribute the film, but only if he can secure Kit Ramsey, a hot A-list action star who is incredibly hard to work with. Bowfinger is rejected by Kit, but he lies to his crew and tells them he agreed. He confides in his friend Dave that he plans to film the movie without Kit knowing he's in it. They'll have their actors go up to Kit in public and recite their lines, they'll film him in secret, and as long as they can shoot the six major scenes that Kit has to be in, they can edit the movie around them. Bowfinger covers to his actors that they can't see Kit outside of filming because he's an intense method actor and won't speak to them off-set, he refuses to do more than one take, and doesn't want to see the camera or it breaks his concentration.
The plan swings into motion and goes well, and through editing it seems like Kit is really interacting with his actors as they film their scenes separately. The film he's shooting concerns an invasion of alien bodysnatchers, and while Bowfinger knows that Kit is a member of a group called "Mindhead", he doesn't know that they're helping Kit keep a grip on his psychological instabilities, foremost of which is paranoia that aliens exist and are after him. With Kit growing increasingly terrified as strangers keep approaching him in public talking about aliens, he tells the leader of Mindhead what's been happening, and he convinces Kit to go into seclusion for a time. Bowfinger recovers by casting a convincing look-a-like of Kit named Jiff; he later learns Jiff is Kit's brother, but Jiff is naive and innocent and has no idea what Bowfinger is up to.
Eventually all that remains is the climax of the film, and Bowfinger needs Kit to say a specific line - "gotcha, suckers!" - as it is the major heroic one-liner that completes it all. As an actress takes Kit to the final setpiece and tries to prompt him to say the line, helicopters arrive carrying the leader of Mindhead and the police; they've realized Kit's delusions had truth to them and squashes Bowfinger's operation. While all their footage is retained, they can't distribute any of it without Kit's permission, which will never happen while he's under Mindhead's thumb. However, as it happens, Dave had Bowfinger's film crew follow Kit around on their own time and get more footage of him in case they needed it. As they review the footage, one such instance has Kit acting out a fantasy he had secretly confided to Mindhead about - anonymously flashing the Laker Girls cheerleading squad, and they laugh uproariously at what they see.
With this damning footage in his possession and knowing it could obliterate Kit's career - and his cash flow to Mindhead - Bowfinger blackmails Mindhead's leader into convincing Kit to sign off on the project and film the final shot and one-liner. "Chubby Rain" premieres and is apparently a huge hit. At the party at his house afterwards, Bowfinger gets a letter offering him the chance to go to Taiwan and make an action film starring Jiff. His career has thus taken off, such as it is.
Is he a bastard?
Bowfinger strings an elaborate web of deceit to make his plan work, but he manages to support it right up until the end. He lies to his actors about Kit, regularly steals equipment from a rental studio to use and then return before they realize it, recruits illegal Mexican immigrants as an unwitting film crew to work for him, and secretly films Kit without his knowledge with the intent to make him the star of his film totally unawares. Though he uses his own personal savings to finance the production and stretches it as far as he can, when the opportunity presents itself he steals an actress' credit card to boost their budget. After hiring Jiff, he uses him to film a scene of Kit running across a busy highway and lies that the cars are driven by stunt people and he's perfectly safe. At the end of the film when the ruse is up, he uses footage of Kit flashing himself to blackmail Mindhead into getting Kit to cooperate.
Behind Bowfinger's underhanded methods is a director who truly wants to make a great film, not just for his own sake but for the sake of his actors and screenwriter who believe in him, and whom he promised to eventually lead to stardom. Though he lies to them about Kit's involvement, it's because he doesn't want to disappoint them, and in the final scene he brings all of them to Taiwan with him to work on his next project. And though Bowfinger's movie directly feeds Kit's paranoid delusions about aliens, he actually has no idea Kit is suffering from them in the first place, it's an unfortunate coincidence.
Is he magnificent?
Bowfinger's plan is to film a movie with the star unaware he's in it, and he was near-seconds away from succeeding if only Kit had been able to deliver the film's iconic one-liner at the climax. He and his crew follow Kit in secret, film him without being discovered, and then uses clever editing to disguise that Kit never directly interacts with the other actors outside of a few key scenes. Bowfinger puts his entire life savings into the project both out of fear he's getting too old to achieve success, and because he's genuinely in awe of the script his screenwriter wrote (we don't see much of the in-universe film but its implied that its a Ham and Cheese action schlock-type of movie).
He's a fast talker and quick thinker, able to convincingly look and act the part of a big-shot director to convince others, and even pretends to have met a Universal producer on a past project as a way to start a conversation, and the producer buys it. He uses these same skills to soothe over concerns from his cast and crew about the risks of what they're doing and their suspicions about his methods. He leverages connections to help his project; a friend who works as a parking attendant gets him a fancy car for sake of appearances, another who works at a production studio is an in to discretely take rental equipment without paying, and so forth. He uses illegal Mexican immigrants as his film crew, but over the course of the film they become genuinely effective and knowledge about camera technology and he shows appreciation for them.
When the leader of Mindhead confronts Bowfinger at the end of the film, Bowfinger defiantly stands from his hiding spot and sternly states a flimsy loophole that he plans to distribute the film in countries that don't recognize American copyright laws. While he gives up the game off-screen soon after, when he sees the footage of Kit flashing the Laker Girls, he's shocked and then gives an evil smile because "I think we just got our permission". He then confidently shares the footage with Mindhead's leader knowing that he'll cave, and takes the opportunity to directly insult them by pretending to slip and starting to refer to them as "Mindfu-" before correcting himself.
Conclusion
Bobby Bowfinger uses lies, thievery, trickery, and a bit of blackmail, to create a great action film with a shoestring budget and a cast and crew of nobodies.
Edited by DrakeClawfang on Apr 24th 2024 at 6:44:46 AM
Lord of Space
What is the work?
Suck Up! is a currently-in-early-access video game that has you play as a vampire who must convince people to let them inside their houses so that they can suck their blood. Th game is unique in that the NPCs are powered by advanced AI software, allowing them to actually respond to what you tell them.Who is the candidate and what have they done?
The game's Villain Protagonist is a nameless vampire who intends to suck the blood of the neighborhood they live into. However, the vampire follows traditional and as such they can't enter someone else's house without being invited first. To achieve this, the vampire uses a variety of disguises (being even able to disguise as the neighbors themselves) to convince their victims to let them in, while trying to avoid the neighbor patrol whenever possible (and talking their way out if avoiding them becomes impossible).In the alternate game mode that was added for Valentine's Day, "Love Bites" (which seems to be set in a non-canon AU), the vampire (referred to as "Cupid" here) intends to break different couples.
How are they Magnificent?
Admittedly, I was at first ensure whether to propose this character or not in the first place, because while characters whose choices depend on the players aren't rare, the vampire is unique since you are the one who writes what they say, making them much more reliant on your choices then a character like this would normally be. That being said, after giving it some thought, there are some pre-established things about the vampire (like their goals and MO) and, since there aren't really alternative endings your choices can bring (if the neighborhood patrol gets you the game simply restarts, and in "Love Bites" you can't lose at all), the only ending obtainable should be considered the "canonical" route for the character. So, what does this mean at the end of the day? It means the vampire, regardless of what you make them say or do, is a skilled trickster, able to disguise as about anyone and who successfully reached their goals in both game modes.How are they a Bastard? How are they not too bad?
Well, they're a vampire who wants to suck blood from people so obviously they're bad, but nothing particularly vile to the point of overshadowing their magnificence (it helps that the game is pretty comedic).Now, in "Love Bites" the vampire is trying to break up loving and functional couples (well, except Karen and her prince since she used a love potion on him) for seemingly no reason at all, but ultimately I don't think it's too bad since they still maintain their magnificent skills from the original game mode and I'd argue breaking up couples, while bad, is less villainous than killing people (even if they're ultimately doing it to feed).
Final verdict?
Yes to me, albeit a cautious one.
Unofficial co-Wiki Curator for Magnificent Bastard
Catwoman.
Also, True Chaos, I think this is because timezones are different in certain areas, though for simplicity's sake, we use the EST timezone to prevent any scheduling conflicts. Your draft is still pretty good, however, so I've put it back up because the effortpost was met with significant approval. It should be located at the MB sandbox for Super Sentai.
MB Pending | MB Drafts | MB Dates
The MILF Virus
- Urban Reign: Shun-Ying, Chinatown's head, is the mission control and operator of Green Harbor, keeping it safe with ruthless efficiency. Taking over after his brother's exile, Shun-Ying overcame Dwight after being framed for his member's kidnapping, quelling his rebellion. Finding the kidnappers, she form the counterunit to their riot, being a step ahead using psychological and guerilla tactics, putting potential defectors in danger to lure them to her side and making enemy leaders as examples. Defeating the Triads and Yakuza led by Lin Fong, Shun-Ying had Brad Hawk stop Mayor Bordin, showing his corruption, taking over as Green Harbor's secret protector.
I’ll take a potato chip… and EAT IT!
Bowfinger and Vampire
Goku Black
bow finger (first For Steve Martin?), vampire, riddler and Catwoman, and machvellian
Edited by miraculous on Apr 22nd 2024 at 4:11:05 AM
"That's right mortal. By channeling my divine rage into power, I have forged a new instrument in which to destroy you."
The MILF Virus
Bowfinger, Riddler, Vampire, and Catwoman
Edited by TheImmortalAngelNewton on Apr 22nd 2024 at 8:49:05 PM
"Are you the devil?" "Don't compare to me to those small fry" - Mir
Machiavillain, Selina & Nygma, Bowfinger, the Vampire.
to Bowfinger, Machiavillain, the Catwoman duo, the Suck Up guy, and another Adaptational Villainy Gambit.
So, here we go, my very first MB EP on this site. If I'm being honest I had other plans, but since I know this would have been more of a trouble discussing, I decided to do it after being given permission by fellow troper Vengeful Bale, which I thank for allowing me. Anyway, let's begin discussing the character.
What's the work?
Megamind Rules! is a sequel series to Megamind vs. the Doom Syndicate and the 2010 film Western Animation/Megamind released in 2024. It follows Megamind as the defendor of Metro City and defeating several villains, most notably the Doom Syndicate and their leader, who is the candidate of today.
Who is Machiavillain?
The supervillain known as Machiavillain is the former evil master of Megamind, who, prior to the events of the series, taught Megamind how to become a villain. One day, Megamind tried to heat a burrito using the gamma chamber in Machiavillain's lab, which resulted in the lab getting destroyed in a fire while Machiavillain was still in there, which lead to his body getting mostly destroyed with the exception of his brain and eyes.
His brain was then put in a jar which he used to move around. Despite what Megamind did to him, Machiavillain decided to not go after his former pupil, up until he found out Megamind became a hero. Angered by Megamind's decision, Machiavillain would break free the Doom Syndicate from prison so they could help him in his plan, that being to get back his body.
To do so, he had the members of the Doom Syndicate take objects and artifacts around the city, such as a genetically modified starfish with regenation abilities, a large snow globe for him to use as a vessel for a machine capable of handling the energy needed for Machiavillain to regenerate his body, a hair brush that cointained his DNA, and the isotopes that he could use to fuel the machine.
After obtaining all these items, there was only one left, Megamind's binky, which is actually a powerful object that was used by Megamind's race and capable of giving someone superhuman powers. However, during his time planning on how to steal it, he hears the Doom Syndicate arguing and goes to see what was going on. There, he finds two versions of one of the members of the group, Lord Nighty-Knight. He quickly understands that one of them is an impostor and realizes that one of them was using Megamind's watch, informing the others of it.
He finds out that the impostor was Keiko Morita, Megamind's pupil and number 1 fan. Keiko then tells him and the Doom Syndicate that she wanted to join Machiavillain's side so he could become her teacher, with Machiavillain telling her that if she steals Megamind's binky, she will be allowed on the group's plans and gain his trust.
After Keiko steals it and brings the binky to Machiavillain, he reveals how he gathered all the items for his plan, and that the binky was one of the most powerful energy sources in the universe. However, Keiko reveals during his monologe that she made a fake version of the binky and had the real one still with her and tries to escape.
However, when the Doom Syndicate fails to capture her and inform Machiavillain about it, he reveals he had the real binky and switched it with the fake during his monologe. Machiavillain then regenerates his body and reveals his plan to the Doom Syndicate, that being to test Megamind and see how competent he is as Metro City's defender.
Later during the day of the Metro City Comet Ceremony, he reveals himself to Megamind and offers him a chance back to villany, which Megamind refuses. Machiavillain then reveals he put on a show which he named "Who Wants to Save a City?", where he challenges Megamind to pass three heroic trials in an hour throught the city, saying that he would leave Metro City if Megamind is able to pass them through the clues Machiavillain gives, but if he doesn't, he will bring destruction to Metro City.
He gives Megamind a clue to the first trial by hacking his watch while he is in his car looking for it, which the group finds out that the first trial was at the city's observatory, where one of the members of the Syndicate, Pierre Pressure, appears and reveals that he wants to brainwash everyone at the ceremony, with Megamind defeating him but accidentaly destroying the observatory.
After this, Machiavillain appears again and reveals a clue to the second trial, which they find out through Roxxane that he was reffering to the city's power station. There, they find Lady Doppler and defeat her, although it results in a blackout throught the city. Machiavillain then reveals the clue to the last trial, where the group finds out he used the blackout to enter Megamind's lab and hack his computer, allowing him to control Megamind's brainbots, which he sends throught the city to commit crimes.
Megamind finds out about this and tries to use his laser satelite to destroy the transmitor antena of his layer, only to be revealed that Machiavillain hacked it and used it to hit the Metro City meteor and have it crash into the city. Megamind tries to stop it, but ends up failing. Just when it seemed like the meteor was about to crash the city, Megamind appears and uses the power of Megamind's binky to grab Megamind's statue and use it to destroy the meteor.
This leads to Metro City thanking Machiavillain for saving them, with them making him into Metro City's defender. Machiavillain then frames Megamind as the mastermind behind the events that day and turning him into the city's public enemy number 1. With Machiavillain seemingly winning, Megamind decides that the group needs to find Metro Man so they can stop Machiavillain.
Is he Magnificent?
In comparison to the Doom Syndicate who are treated as incompetent buffons who can be easily tricked by Megamind and friends or can often be pretty childish, Machiavillain is an evil mastermind who is capable of manipulating the main cast to accomplish his goals, with him winning at the end of the season and outsmarting Megamind, with him not only getting all of Metro City on his side, but also turning Megamind into the city's public enemy number one.
While the series he comes from was... very poorly received to say the least (which I agree given how low on quality this show is in many areas) Machiavillain is still treated as a cool and charismatic supervillain who is capable of great schemes and serves as a great personal threat towards Megamind. One possible issue that may come up is that he has some moments where he insults the Doom Syndicate, but it's understandable given their incompetence and he normally keeps his friendly façace with them like he does with the other characters.
So, overall, smart, manipulative, and powerful enemy to the main characters whom he outsmarts, certainly passing in magnificence.
Is he a Bastard?
Certainly, the guy is a supervillain who leads the main villains of both the second film and series. He has the Doom Syndicate steal items so he can use to rebuild his body, took Megamind's layer and had his robots commit crimes throught the city, and finally, endangers the city so he can save it, be seen as a hero, and frame Megamind as a villain.
However, in comparison to Tighten, the villains of the first movie, Machiavillain comes across as far less petty and never comes into the territory of being too vile for the trope like he does.
Conclusion
I think he counts, but if he ends up being downvoted for whatever reason, it wouldn't matter much to me since I had much more entertaining characters from much better shows that I hope to discuss one day, so I'm okay with however it ends.
Edited by TrippEverett on Apr 21st 2024 at 1:03:51 AM