Removed Kheldar and Porenn of the Belgariad. This is a villain trope. You're looking for "Guile Hero."
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No it's not. It may be any character that makes audience think:"This guy is amazing in his scheming", they could be good,bad, anything in between, above or below. Of course heroic Magnificent Bastard WILL be Guile Hero, but that doesn't mean it's mutually exclusive.
Edited by NNinja
Azor Ahai
Deleted that comment about Vetinari being boring- seems to be a case where Rule Of Cautious Editing Judgment should apply. Also, that's honestly a quite unusual reading of his character- the guy is a Deadpan Snarker master assassin who seems to be omnipotent- most fans love him and those who don't think he's a Mary Sue- reading him as boring is new by me.
Hodor Hide / Show Replies
The "boring" comment is just Tombarter (the obsessive Cutler Beckett fanatic) thinking that he knows best about fictional villains and that his personal opinions on such villains should count as truth. He doesn't think highly of Randall Flagg either.
Vasquez Private Eye: Martha Vasquez aka Zachary Venshlin. Driven to insanity by the acquittal of Firebird Airlines of their role in the crash that killed her youngest son and cost her a kneecap, due to her son Johnson unwittingly getting his girlfriend Zelda Thomson involved in the investigation and voiding the convicting evidence through the exclusionary rule, she blackmails her former student, Shannon Thomson, into providing her with a drink mix that will transform people into the embodiment of their deepest darkest desires. She uses it to became a lawyer and sabotage court cases involving the lawyers and judge from the Firebird lawsuit hearings to acquit truly guilty defendants, including William York, who murdered his father and tried to kill Patrick Ralston, after being wrongfully fired from his mechanic job at Firebird Airlines. She then murdered the lawyers and judge who spelled the end of William's career at Firebird, as well as her detective husband, the latter so he wouldn't solve the mystery too quickly. The clues left for Johnson bait her niece, Rachel Dinesen, into thinking William and Johnson are the co-conspirators behind the murders, and when Johnson finally solves the mystery, she engages him in combat in a subway station, intent on killing him or driving him insane for causing her own death. Crafty and secretive, any outcome would've been a win for her.
The answer to life and everything is in this place As are the numbers most favored by Two-Face