Sometimes I look at a character and he's just so gorgeous. What a look, what intelligence, cunning, and he's not a Magnificent Baddie.

I'll give you an example of Slagar the Cruel. (Redwall) He's very clever and has been deceiving the main characters for a long time with tricks. As a slave trader, he's not the cruelest, in the very first scene, he ordered the children to be given water to drink. He only beat a child once, and that was only because he was directly threatened. He has a very stylish look, a mask, a cloak, and in general I like his clothes. Well, alas, he's clearly crazy (he definitely goes crazy at the end) and quite immoral.

I'd also give The Alchemist as an example. (Vidocq) He's quite smart, moreover, we see most of the plot through his eyes. And his villainous look is gorgeous. Yes, he's immoral, but most of it is tied to an attempt to become immortal.

How would Captain Jack sparrow react to Gunkel Stan?

He might qualify but IIRC he is kinda cowardly and petty. been a while since I have seen the show so my memory is a littel fuzzy. thoughts

As of the new Sonic x Shadow Generations game, Mephiles is now pathetic as he drops his previous nihilistic personality and cowardly begs Shadow to let him live.

One that comes to my mind is the opening antagonist of the sencond film.

Now, obviously, most candidates here are brilliant operators who are generally capable of manipulating others and easily make others their pawns for their plots. Of course, another important aspect of the trope is a character being likable to the audience which comes naturally to most candidates by having good VAs, 'Evil is Cool' or simply having a generally enjoyable personality. However, for this post, I want to see examples of characters who have the smarts for the trope but ultimately don't count since they lack entertaining qualities or 'Evil is Cool' Aspects that make them likable to the audience.

So a strange example is the Hotel Manager from Old. Now, he is definitely too vile to count (just see his crime list on the NPE Wiki). However, IIRC, he was removed from the disallowed pages for being too obvious due to lacking the charm required for the trope and he likely wouldn't have counted even if he wasn't too vile so I feel he could be used as a theoretical example.

The Hotel Manager is a brilliant operator who manages to use an island to host unethical drug experiments on tourists and make them process the drugs quickly. Despite that, he seriously lacks charm and charisma to him as he lacks any entertaining qualities that could make him likable. Furthermore, none of his crimes have any entertaining or 'Evil is Cool' aspects to them which prevents him from being charming. While he is Faux Affably Evil, it doesn't make him charming enough as it doesn't make him an entertainingly character to watch or add any stage presence to him to the point where he's kind of boring to watch. Overall, while the Manager has the smarts for the trope, the main reason he doesn't count is because he lacks any real charm to make him likable to the audience and the narrative doesn't try to portray him as cool or awesome at any point in the movie.

Give your own examples.

Does the musical version qualify? If not then should that be a note on his page?

She pretty much has everything else going for her, but I don't know if she's outsmarted by Cobs as she pretty much didn't know that he was going to attack Hotel OJ. I get that the others didn't know as well but still.....

What do you think? Is she worth a discussion or is she better off as a non-MB?

I'll give out two examples of characters who come close to qualifying but ultimately don't count for the trope because of technicalities.

Dexter Morgan: Now, Dexter is a rather stylish operator and was an undetected serial killer for over a decade. While he is undeniably bastardly for killing hundreds of criminals simply to satisfy his sadism, he has many redeeming and sympathetic qualities to counteract that. Helps that he is pitted against many viler serial killers in the show. However, while definitely close, Dexter ultimately doesn't count for what he did in Season 2. There, he was dating Rita but then cheated on her with Lila out of pure stupidity by having sex with the latter for no reason which screws him over with Rita. Now obviously, cheating on your spouse isn't an automatic disqualification for the trope as shown with Lawrence Gordon from Saw and Dexter does apologize to Rita about this which prevents the slip-up alone from being too mitigating by itself due to Rita forgiving him. However, IIRC, cheating in a relationship specifically is only allowed under three conditions:

1. The extra marital relationship never goes beyond sexual.

2. The character is two-timing purely for pragmatic reasons.

3. The spouse being cheated on is an unsympathetic victim.

Ultimately, while Dexter does come close to counting for the trope and even regrets cheating on Rita, the fact that his cheating doesn't fall under these conditions is what prevents him from counting as fails on all three fronts. He had sex with Lila while still dating Rita, him cheating on Rita was done for no reason other than maybe being a douchebag as he never planned to use Lila as a pawn and Rita is treated as an innocent victim. It doesn't help that he had sex with Lila seconds after scolding her for threatening his relationship with Rita for no apparent reason which I can't understand at all.

For my next candidate, it will be Kiyotaka Ayanokoji from Classroom of the Elite. Now, Ayanokoji is a brilliant chess master who is basically The Planner of the entire series. For the most part, he is pretty Magnificent as he helps support Class D from behind the scenes. However, the reason he doesn't count for the trope is the 'Spread Your Legs' Scene. In that scene, he asks Kei Karuizawa to spread her legs in a disturbingly predatory manner which constitutes as sexual harassment. Considering that Ayanokoji isn't from a kids show and that Kei is treated as a victim, it's safe to say that this makes him too vile to count.

You can give your own examples below.

As we all know, Magnificent Baddies can be hypocritical but it shouldn't be a defining trait which undermines their magnificence. So, who is the most hypocritical MB in your opinion, and why?

How is Eggman from the Sonic adventure game a MB when the sequal that is canon to the game gives him disqualifying factors haven’t played the games itself but based on the page "Although Sonic Adventure 2 is canon to Sonic Adventure 1, Robotnik's sequel counterpart in that game is too vile to be an MB due his terrorism and infamous attempted murder towards Amy". ???

He's not some super genius like other MBs, but he's incredibly powerful, strong enough that he made Knuckles look like a chump. Twice. He's also gotten closer to winning than probably any other villain in the trilogy, and he probably would have won if he didn't turn good. Then there's his backstory, which makes him sympathetic. I say he's a fairly good candidate.