How do you know when the character's arc is done so they can be proposed? When their tenure as a villain or antagonist finishes.

There is no exceptionalism case to be made for this trope but explaining the variety helps the reader have a better understanding of the proposal. While, as a villain, they probably are going to lose in the end, it is good to explain how other characters handle the same situation. The competition, similar to the Heinous Standard dealt with for a Complete Monster, this section is to deal with how successful the character is in carrying out their plans compared to other characters.List circumstances in which the character must Think on their feet, these are times where a wrench might be thrown in their initial plan and they have to adapt on the spot or even come up with a new scheme all together, this is also a good time to explain how the villain reacts to defeat when they have to face it, a true Magnificent Bastard won't break down into tears at the thought of death, they should have known such a possibility could occur and be able to handle it with more dignity.Summarize The character's actions, this will provide a listing for readers to understand what they do and how it applies to this trope because charm and lack of smugness are so crucial, this is a good time to be incorporating exactly the flavor of how they operate to explain this.Begin by describing The work, this will help establish the setting the character is in and for the reader to understand what kind of a scenario they are in.What do I do if I want a character to be listed as a Magnificent Bastard?: The greatest success Complete Monster saw for its cleanup effort was from the invention of the effort post format, so, borrowing from that, a troper wishing to propose a Magnificent Bastard will create such a post in the following format:.Do we list Playing With this trope?: No as a YMMV trope, this cannot be Played With, so we only want examples that are Played Straight.

The character could well count but they need to be analyzed properly and voted on first. What to do if a character is listed on a page but has not been approved?: They need to be removed, all candidates need to come through the cleanup thread first.

Have charm: Even if they don't necessarily make every character they meet fall in love with them and can even be detested by others, the audience has to find an amicable social relation to the character, or they are failing to make the impact required for this trope.

Think on their feet: In addition to being a Chessmaster, a Magnificent Bastard, if the character deals with situations in which their initial plan is ruined, has to be able to pull a Xanatos Speed Chess and at least come up with a competent strategy to make up for lost time, otherwise they fail for being unable to think in tough spots.

A genocidal racist or child-raping Sadist aren't going to make the cut

Must not be too detestable: Again, there is a ceiling on how bad the character can be before they just become too nefarious, blocking out the Magnificent part of the trope.

Must be a Bastard: While going overboard in how vile the character is can be detrimental, a key aspect is the Bastard part of the trope, whether the character is an out-and-out antagonist in the work, some manner of Villain Protagonist, or something in between, they at least have some unscrupulous qualities to qualify for this trope.

Must be intelligent: Goes without saying, to be a Magnificent Bastard, the character has to be smart in the first place and use their brain to work towards whatever their end goal may be.

Note that they must all be present, not just some, which has lead to frequent misuse:

What makes a Magnificent Bastard: Below is a list of the individual components to make this character.

As the trope attracts interest, it unfortunately brings in a lot of misuse and I thought the best way to rectify this would be a Perpetual Cleanup Thread, as is being done and has seen success with Complete Monster. While these are components, there is also a certain personality required, not to mention that all of the above are required to be present for a character to be a true Magnificent Bastard.

That being said, it frequently gets misused to a character who meets one of the components, namely that they are smart, charming while not necessarily even being a villain, or create good plans.

Why do a cleanup?: This trope definitely exists and has a well documented history of use.

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