Magnificent Bastard/Gundam

Most Gundam series have featured, at some point or another, a Magnificent Bastard as an antagonist.

Treize has you right where he wants you. Always.

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• From the first Mobile Suit Gundam series, we have the guy who set the standard for Magnificent Bastards to come: Char Aznable, who has had many moments of Magnificent Bastardry, one of his best being when he leads Garma Zabi into a trap, politely calls him on the phone, explains his motives, tells him goodbye and leaves him to die. One can't deny the flair of the execution, with Char being one of the single most memorable and archetypal villains in the Gundam franchise for this reason.
• Kycillia Zabi is one of these as well, as evidenced by her lengthy and carefully calculated campaign to seize control from her older brother Gihren, as well as her skill as a battlefield commander. Upon discovering through Colonel Killing's betrayal that Gihren had infiltrated her faction and was preparing to frame her for treason, Kycilia moved swiftly, leaking Char's identity to Gihren's fake conspirators and transforming a sham plot into an actual revolt against his rule. Aware that Zeon could no longer win the war, and that the Federation would never make peace while her brother lived, Kycilia journeyed to A Baoa Qu and, on finding out that Gihren had murdered their father, executed him for patricide and assumed command of what was left of Zeon. The only one able to truly upstage her is Char Aznable himself, who betrayed her and liteally blew her up with a bazooka... but Kycilia was nevertheless the only Zabi, or indeed, Zeon Admiral, with both a realistic appreciation of their circumstances, and the ruthlessness and will to act accordingly.
• Zeta Gundam:
  • The deviously intelligent Paptimus Scirocco quietly manipulated his way from common lacky to becoming the head of the Titans, killing off everyone else who got in his way with a flair and style that just made it hard not to root for the guy as a villain. A brilliant tactician both in and out of a mobile suit, Scirocco excels at reading potential in his subordinates and outmaneuvers the Anti-Earth Union Group (AEUG) to capture the strategic stronghold of the lunar city Von Braun. Leaving the day-to-day operations of the city in the hands of his antagonistic superior, Scirocco divulges the man's schemes to the AEUG and arranges for his death to gain more dominance within the Titans for himself. Forming an alliance with Haman Khan of Neo Zeon, Scirocco bolsters the strength of the Titans with the Axis military and personally assassinates the Titans leader, Jamitov Hymem, assuming command over the syndicate and blaming Jamitov's death on Haman, rallying his forces to fight against her. Giving a former AEUG pilot he corrupted to his side an eloquent lecture on his ambitions for humanity, Scirocco engages the AEUG personally and reveals he has kept his alliance with Haman to revitalize the strength of his fleet. Even with his armada destroyed by the blast of a colony laser, Scirocco continues to fight Kamille Bidan and even in his dying moments, destroys Kamille's consciousness, unrelentingly unwilling to accept his vanquishment. Emotionally manipulative yet charming, charismatic and stylish, Scirocco proves himself to be every bit as brilliantly Machiavellian as he is mysterious.
  • A second one, as well as the Big Bad for Gundam ZZ, is the Axis Zeon leader Haman Kahn. A ruthless Lady of War and Woman in Black who manipulates and outsmarts almost everyone in Zeta, fights with honor in both series, and is so damn stylish at the same time. It rather telling that the one person that Paptimus Scirocco is cautious of (and has a healthy amount of respect for) is her.
• Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory: Once used in a brutal war crime by her Zeon superiors, Cima Garahau ended adrift with her fleet, resorting to piracy to survive. Upon learning of Aigulle Delaz's attempt to revive Zeon with Operation Stardust, Cima joined Delaz and his right-hand man Anavel Gato while plotting to betray them. Secretly plotting alongside the Federation, Cima lured Delaz's forces into a trap to end Operation Stardust, plotting to also secure the safety of the Cima Fleet, finally executing Delaz when he refused to yield and using military force to try to stop Gato's Colony Drop.
• Victory Gundam had Tassilo Vago, the sophisticated, scheming and efficient Starscream of the Zanscare Empire, as either this or a high-functioning Smug Snake.
• In Mobile Fighter G Gundam, Master Asia, seeking to save the Earth's environment, became a willing servant of the Devil Gundam. He used the pretense of the Gundam fight to lure four Gundam Fighters to Shinjuku, where he used DG Cells to brainwash them into becoming protectors of the Devil Gundam. When the Devil Gundam destroys Shinjuku, Master rallies the survivors while secretly leading the Death Army. When Master's student Domon Kasshu comes to Shinjuku to investigate, Master repeatedly lured Domon into traps in the hopes of brainwashing him into another of the Devil Gundam's protectors. Domon's partner Rain revealing Master's duplicity is only a minor inconvenience to him, as he just uses his Master Gundam to easily defeat Domon. Master frequently exploits Domon's anger management issues to bait him into making near fatal mistakes. Master enters an alliance with Prime Minister Wong, who wants to use the Devil Gundam to rule the world. Wong tries to kill Master so he can have the Devil Gundam to himself, but Master outmanuevers Wong. When Domon defeats Master for good, Master realizes that humans are a part of nature and apologizes to Domon for his crimes before he dies, revealing that he is the only character to work with the Devil Gundam without becoming a DG cell infested slave. While Master is ruthless, he remains a man of honor to the very end.
• Gundam Wing:
  • Trieze Khushrenada, the leader of OZ, is a brilliant military leader with a chivalrous spirit. How did he make the Earth Federation fall into OZ's clutches? Freely gave the location of the Federation council's meeting to the Gundam pilots, which ended with the pilots killing the leader who was ready to start peace talks, stripping the pilots from colony support, and making them have a (rather) minor mental breakdown.}} And that's just the start; Treize systematically plays the entire war with his best friend Zechs Merquise to put themselves on opposite ends of the war and create a final, cataclysmic conflict to traumatize humanity off war forevermore. He also had rose petals in his bath tub, and knows how to enjoy fine wine and arts. Combining a brilliant mind with his sense of chivalry, Treize is even able to recall the names and faces of every man who has ever died to make his dreams a reality and considers no price too great for peace, even his own life.
    • The best part is that the only reason Treize didn't take over the entire solar system when he easily could have less than halfway through the series (Lady Une begs him to at one point) is that Treize suffered from severe self-esteem problems. When Zechs Milliardo finally gives him a reason to fight again Treize seizes control of the entire Earth Nation in exactly five minutes.
      • And even after his death, Treize's influence lives on, as Lady Une invokes his name when verbally beating down Mariemeia's claims and beliefs, and not long afterward Dekim is shot by a former OZ soldier out of respect for Treize's legacy.
  • Colonel Zechs Merquise, the "Lightning Baron", is a talented commander and mobile suit pilot who'll do what it takes to achieve peace between the Colony and Earth. His true identity is the Crown Prince Milliardo Peacecraft of the Sanc Kingdom whose dynasty was nearly wiped out by The United Earth Sphere Alliance. Desiring revenge, Milliardo allied with Treis and Oz, changing his identity as Colonel Zechs, to free his kingdom. With his skills and leadership, Zechs was one of the few capable of defeating the Gundams, even able to go toe to toe with Heero Yuy. When the Romefeller Foundation began their world conquest collapsing the Sanc Kingdom Zechs had an epiphany, making plans to put an end to all wars. Leading the rebel militia Whitefang, Zechs returns to his original name and destroys the Romefeller Foundation before declaring war on Earth, with his goal being to show the horrors of war to all of mankind by using the Battleship Libra to ruin Earth, hoping the resulting disaster would scare others enough from war.
  • Dorothy Catalonia is a ruthless, brilliant seeming warmonger who truly desires peace. The granddaughter of Duke Dermail, Catalina hates war after losing her father but understands world peace can't be achieve without being earned. Sent to spy on Relena Peacecraft and the Sanc Kingdom on the behast of her grandfather, Dorothy gets close to Relena and bonds with her and convinces Relena to relent to Dermail by collapsing the Sanc Kingdom while secretly guiding Relena to leadership to overthrow her grandfather. Curious about the Whitefang organization led by Milliardo, Dorothy approaches them to join, convincing Zechs and uses her authority in the group to use the Zero System and nearly destroys most of the enemy Gundams with the Mobile Dolls. Awaiting Quatre in Libra for a final duel, Dorothy overpowers him while explaining him her intentions before leaving Libra after Quatre escapes, returning to Earth in order to maintain the hard-earned peace her loved ones sacrificed themselves for supporting Relena's effort.
• ∀ Gundam: Guin Sard Lineford is the former lord of the Principality of Inglessa, falling into disgrace with the defeat of his country, though managing to keep his influence thanks to his friendship with the Luziannan princess Lily Borjano. A young, ambitious and visionary lord, Guin successfully leads the forces of Earth against the technologically advanced Moonrace and study their advanced weapons. One of the heroes' smartest allies, Guin eventually betrays them to join Gym Ghingham, taking a role as the leader of a new technological revolution, which only fails because of the barbaric behaviour of the latter. Accepting his defeat at the hands of his former friend and political ally, Lily, Guin saves the protegee of Gym and escapes with her.
• From Gundam SEED, we have Rau le Creuset, a man so intelligent and erudite he managed to mask his ever encroaching insanity and the fact that he is a clone from all of those around him. Out of all of the Gundam villains, it is quite possible that he is the only one who came closest to his goal, eradicating all of humanity. Successful at masking his encroaching madness until the very end, Le Creuset dies smiling, convinced that the entire world will shortly be following after him.
• Gundam SEED Destiny Big Bad Gilbert Durandal may also count; he certainly has the Manipulative Bastard, Chessmaster, and Xanatos Speed Chess ability to make a good try, and has fairly sympathetic goals to boot. He made use of Lord Djibril and Blue Cosmos' blatant evil to launch an invasion of the Earth Sphere disguised as a liberation, using his own reputation for honesty and the services of Lacus Clyne impersonator Meer Campbell to camouflage his intentions, and scattering agents of FAITH throughout the ZAFT military to keep an eye on its loyalty. Preying on the emotional insecurities of those in his service, Durandal turned Decoy Protagonist Shinn Auska into the very thing he hated most, and kept veteran characters like Kira, Athrun, and Lacus out of the picture or unsure if they should oppose him for most of the series. Only killed when he loses the faith of his most loyal enforcer, Rey, Durandal dies convinced that he was right and that without his Destiniy Plan the world is doomed.
• In Gundam 00, the true Magnificent Bastard turns out to be Aeolia Schenberg. Put simply, the entire series is his plan. Even the people who tried to hijack it were part of it. Oh, and he won.
• Iron-Blooded Orphans: Rustal Elion is one of the Seven Stars who lead the military police force Gjallarhorn. A charismatic nobleman and brilliant military strategist, Rustal has the complete trust of his subordinates. When Rustal's rival in the Seven Stars, McGillis, moves against him, Rustal engineers a small scale war to turn McGillis' allies, Tekkadan, against McGillis. While the war fails to break McGillis and Tekkadan's alliance, it does force Tekkadan to shut down their Earth branch, weakening the organization considerably. When the tensions between Rustal and McGillis lead to civil war, Rustal has one of his subordinates infiltrate McGillis' forces, fire an illegal Dainsleif railgun at Rustal's fleet and commit suicide, giving Rustal justification to annihilate McGillis and Tekkadan. While political tensions ultimately force the Seven Stars to disband in favor of democratically elected leaders, Rustal still comes out ahead as he is elected leader of Gjallarhorn. Rustal remains a hero to the public and becomes the first Big Bad to win in the end.
• Gundam: The Witch From Mercury: Prospera Mercury is Sulleta’s manipulative mother and the series’s Char Clone. Originally Elnora Samaya, test pilot for Gundam mobile suits for the Vanadis Institute, she and her daughter Ericht/Eri were forced to go on the run after Delling Rembran ordered the massacre of all people involved in the development of the Gund format, one of the victims being Elnora's dear husband Nadim. After Eri’s body could not withstand life in space and her consciousness had to be uploaded into Gundam Lfrith, Elnora swore revenge on the people who destroyed her life and decided to create a world where her daughter can be free again. Taking the identity of Prospera, she teams up with Delling on for his Quiet Zero project -- to use it in her plan. She creates Suletta from Ericht’s DNA and raises her to pilot the Gundam created from Lfrith, Aerial, in order to reach the Permet score necessary for her plan. She then sends the very Skilled but Naive Suletta to Asticassia School, where she plans for her to become the Holder and fiancée to Delling’s daughter Miorine, so she can further manipulate them both. When Delling is put in a coma after protecting Miorine, Prospera manipulates the girl into running for president of the Benerit Group, even convincing her to go along with a plan that would result in Sulleta reaching Permat score 8. Using Miorine’s peace mission to Earth to destroy the Gundam used by the violent Dawn of Fold, Prospera takes control of Quiet Zero and plans to engulf Earth into a giant data storm for her dear Ericht to live in. After her defeat, Prospera has a conversation with the ghosts of her dead loved ones, who convince her to let go of her revenge and embrace her new family; in the very end, she lives through and watches over Suletta and Miorine, who now are together - plus Eri, whose soul unexpectedly survived too (albeit bound to a keychain at the moment).