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
Goku Black
@Selkies: You can post yours now.
"That's right mortal. By channeling my divine rage into power, I have forged a new instrument in which to destroy you."
Oh cool, this thread is finally back up. I’ll start with one of my smaller proposals first.
What is the Work?
The 2005 independent third-person Beat 'em Up/Cinematic Platformer Lugaru and its 2017 sequel Overgrowth, which revolves around a post-apocalyptic world with anthropomorphic animals that fight and kill each other. When rabbit and ex-soldier Turner’s entire village, including his family, is massacred by a gang of bandits, he goes out in order to exact revenge and discover the truth of why his village was slaughtered.
Who is the Character and What Have They Done?
Turner is the protagonist of both games. He is an ex-soldier who lives in a small village in an unnamed rabbit island nation. While on a survey for bandits one day, he is lured out by a man and ambushed to be killed, swiftly disposing of the man and the bandit he has brought to kill him, only to discover that bandits raided the village in the meantime, killing his wife and child. Exacting a quest of vengeance, he slaughters dozens of bandits with a combination of wits, battle skills and combat pragmatism, even taking out a wolf numerous times his size and strength.
After tracking down fellow village resident Skipper, who had been kidnapped by the raiders, he learns that another village resident, Jack, had faked his death, and manipulated Skipper into leaving the village undefended. Tracking Jack down, he discovers that he had orchestrated the attack on the raiders and planned on Turner hunting down the bandits so that the powerful wolves would be unopposed to use the rabbits of the island as a food source after they had exhausted the resources from where they lived, and that he had done so in loyalty to King Hickory.
Defeating Jack in battle, Turner reveals the truth in front of the Royal Guard and King Hickory, convincing them to force the king to step down for his cowardice in refusing to fight against the wolves and instead kowtowing to them. Becoming the effective king of the nation, Turner orders the men to stand guard while he hunts the wolves down himself.
After taking down numerous wolves (who are noted to be dozens of times stronger than rabbits could ever hope to be in the story), Turner confronts King Hickory in exile, who intends to kill him and reassert his power. Calling him out for his selfishness and cowardice, he defeats him in combat before ambushing the Alpha Wolves’s territory, killing his mate and pups and then the Alpha Wolf himself. Returning to the Royal Hall, Turner refuses the influence of power, being cynical of it, and leaves to wander the world and discover a new purpose in life.
Returning in the sequel, Turner comes to the village of White Flags to discover a trafficking operation under works led by the vicious cat noblewoman Amethyst. Taking down the numerous bandits known as the “Catchers” that work under Amethyst’s command one by one with the assistance of other rabbits and the group “Rabbits of the Moon” and using their own admissions or his interrogations to further assist in attaining information, he’s struck by a stray blow dart and kidnapped to fight numerous duels to the death against the other various combat slaves in Gladiatorial games with the intention of eventually fighting Amethyst’s right-hand cat Jade and taking down Amethyst and her slaving operation with it while the Rabbits of The Moon use stolen sleeping poison to immunize her guards. When used by one of Amethyst’s guards to collect poison, he is able to use his platforming skills to collect sleeping poison reserves atop an active lava pit that no other rabbit had been able to collect without dying before. Discovering that one of the Rabbits of the Moon had been a mole for Amethyst's operation from the abolitionist cat Midnight, who had been imprisoned for his disagreements with Amethyst's operation, he sneaks past numerous guards and kills the traitor while ensuring her body can be easily discovered so her family will be safe. Being forced to kill his only ally Midnight by the guards, he kills Jade and provokes Amethyst into combat after defeating any of her still conscious guards by threatening to use her body parts as tools like she had done to so many beforehand and insulting her sense of pride.
With The Rabbits of the Moon likely to be tracked down by those faithful to Amethyst, Turner climbs into the City of the Clouds they had previously been exiled from and kills the elitist guards that had kicked them out after one of sons of a family in the family had been killed by a radical after years of oppression, before leaving due to knowing he would still be tracked down by Amethyst's faithful and leaving them to return to White Flags
Is He Magnificent?
The playstyle of the games enforce a ninja-like Combat Pragmatist gameplay style, with stealth and infiltration, use of quick reaction speeds and baiting of enemy attacks, and usage of any weapons you can find your hands on. He takes down numerous skilled combatants, many of them three times his size, by his own wits and merits.
His impacts on the world are undeniable, as he nearly singlehandedly unearths a wretched conspiracy from the corrupt King Hickory and ousts him from power before vanquishing the wolves from harming the land, and destroys a human trafficking operation before ensuring the people that had helped in the operation will be secure. While adopting a Deadpan Snarker attitude that he demonstrates numerous other times, he calls out the pride and arrogance of the main antagonists of both games, even using it for his own benefit against Amethyst, refusing her pleas for him to look past her horrible crimes. On a smaller scale, he shows himself to be resourceful as he offers to grant a rat member of the Catchers a proper death in combat after he provides information, and leaves the traitor Slate’s body in an easily discovered position to ensure her family’s safety.
Despite his high killcount, he is far from a mindless berserker, as since previously mentioned, the gameplay style involves a more concentrated approach than mindless murdering and button-mashing, involving deliberation on enemy weak points and attacks, and he is highly pragmatic and rarely attacks those who don’t go after him first.
What Makes Him A Bastard? Is he too much of one?
He is incredibly lethal, and is willing to mow down numerous individuals with little remorse and occasionally mocks them, though most of those individuals were either going after him or are cruel horrendous raiders or slavers that deserved their fate. At his most horrendous moment, he is willing to kill the family of Alpha Wolf Ash, including his mate and his child pups. While this action is horrible, this comes after the Wolves being clearly unwilling to accept any compromise for their vicious appetite, Turner is clearly disgusted by himself, and the Wolf children are hostile on sight as opposed to docile NPC characters. While he shows himself to be capable of kindness numerous times, he is also often very cold and sarcastic to his teammates, clearly being made very cynical as a result of the events he’s been made to endure and the world he lives in.
Verdict?
Haha funny bunny ninja. Yes, in my opinion.
Edited by Orangutans on Jan 16th 2023 at 12:07:25 PM
Not the Eye
Great works on Luthen Ravok!
Have pretty good idea who other 2 are.
Very happy with the way the EP on Luthen turned out and look forward to voting on it when the time comes.
Professional Wick Checker
Okay, here I go.
Candidate: Jung Sun-ah from The Devil Judge.
- What is the work?
- Who is the candidate?
- Magnificent?
She's the one who set the entire plot in motion, and like a true Manipulative Bitch, she manipulates other characters, such as Jin-joo. Sun-ah exploits Jin-joo's desire for recognition and spotlight and attempts to make her side with her and the Social Responsibility Foundation (let's refer to it as SRF from now forward) with Jin-joo not knowing how corrupt the organization is, making Jin-joo her Unwitting Pawn.
- Bastard?
From her least severe actions to her most heinous ones:
- She humiliated Chairman Seo after having caught him touching a woman inappropriately by slapping him repeatedly, calling him a dog, and ordering him to repent.
- She pushes the director of a center for troubled teens down the stairs perhaps/apparently killing her for no clear reason.
- She tortures Yo-han by having him watch his driver get dropped to his death (though he's shown to have survived later on).
- She killed the (now) old Chairman Seo of the SRF who abused and took advantage of her as a child through a Deadly Hug. She also shot the president of SK, then shot herself as well in the last episode.
However, she also has her "not so evil" moments.
- She saved a waitress from being sexually harassed by Chairman Seo and punished him for it.
- She feels extreme guilt toward the girl she grew somewhat attached to during her speech at the troubled teens center, having found that the Dream Home Medical Center she works with caused the girl to be hospitalized and unconscious. She even cries for the first time!
- She is disgusted and annoyed by President Heo's plan of introducing a virus into poor slums and getting rid of any protesters shall a revolution take place. She even slaps him and puts him in his place.
- Final verdict:
Goku Black
Alright the above sounds to be a good keeper. Sounds like the bad is tempered by the good.
"That's right mortal. By channeling my divine rage into power, I have forged a new instrument in which to destroy you."
Since this thread doesn't seem as chaotic as the CM thread, I'm gonna post my 1 MB proposal now
The work
The Legend Series by Marie Lu is a series set over a 100 years in the future, where climate disasters has brought worldwide devastation, like Europe and South America are just islands now, while Africa and Antarctica have unified into their conutries and become world superpowers.
Meanwhile the US has split in half, with the west becoming the Republic of America, a People's Republic of Tyranny, while the east became the Colonies of America which is an One Nation Under Copyright, and the two have been at war for decades.
Daniel Altan Wing known as "Day" is from the Republic and is a fugitive for surviving a republic experiment when he shouldn't have.
Well that's the set up for the original trilogy, but there is a sequel novel, Rebel, set 10 years after the original series. After the Republic has begun to reform and negotiated peace with Colonies, Day whose just Daniel now moves to Antarctica and joins the Antarctician Intelligence Service (AIS) while his prodigy little brother Eden attends university there.
Thing is, Antarctica has a unique way of running things, where all citizens being connected to a "level" system, where all of their actions earning or losing them points based on their actions, with the higher level you have you get more rights and higher social status. Supposedly this makes the country a true meritocracy, when actually there's still a big case of classism going on. Naturally this some people object to this system, with Dominic Hann doing so masterfully.
Who is Dominic Hann and what has he done
Dominic Hann was born a poor boy in the Undercity of the Antarctician capital Ross City. Hann manage to eke out a living and settled down with a wife and son, before his wife took out some loans she shouldn't have which results in the local crime organization to kill her and abduct his son, promising to return him if Hann works off the debt, he joins them, but his son dies anyway.
Hann stayed in, and rose his way to the top and became the biggest crime boss in the city, staying in charge through his ruthless tactics such as having people who don't pay their debts brutally killed as an example. The AIS has an investigation lead by Daniel out on him, but since No One Sees the Boss they can hardly get a picture of him.
Then one day Eden goes out to an illegal drone race in the Undercity with a custom drone he's made, only to find out he either needs a sponsor or a pile of cash to get in, for then Hann show up and become his sponsor, being very interested in his drone.
Eden wins the race, and Hann promises to keep an eye on him.
Hann has Daniel kidnapped, and tells Eden to meet at certain spot. Eden does and from he's brought to a hidden estate he's had built in some abandoned underground tunnels and makes an offer to Eden: help him with this project he's working on and he'll let them go. Eden agrees and Hann reveals what he's working on: he's making a giant engine that'll emit a signal that will completely shut down the country's level system. The reason why he recruited Eden is that he noticed the experimental engine in the drone he made is very similar to his engine. As for why he wants to shut down the level system, he blames his family's deaths on it, saying if it weren't for it his wife wouldn't have needed to take out the loans that got her killed.
Eden does his part and lets Daniel go, (well he was going to let him out but Daniel happened to try an escape attempt at the same time, so Hann just lets him escape), and offers Eden a chance to stay and work with him, knowing that he doesn't like the level system either. Eden declines and Hann lets him go, but leaving the offer open, saying he knows that he'll change his mind.
Hann then uses the engine to shut down the level system, and since almost all the country's infrastructure was built on it it leads to widespread riots as people take out their of the system out, forcing the high ranking members of the government to take refuge in the Republic.
While there Daniel and Eden realize that Hann didn't delete the system as thought, but merely turned it off and that he's planning on bringing it back with him running it. They come up with a plan to have Eden go back, pretend to take Hann's offer and have him turn the system back on their terms.
Eden goes back, and Hann, though suspicious seemingly takes Eden in, only for Eden to realize that a little communication drone he had on him is missing and realizes Hann must've took it.
Eden manages to escape where he's being held and goes to the engine, only to find Hann waiting there with his men. Hann saw straight through the attempt, since he found it suspicious that he changed his mind right at that moment.
Eden manages to turn the system back on and tries to flee with Daniel helping, only to find Hann waiting at the exit with a knife. Hann attacks them, putting up a good fight despite an old guy with a lung condition, with Eden trying to use his family to convince him to stop. this doesn't work, but Eden manages to knock Hann off the catwalk on.
Hann actually survives that, but he's arrested by the Antarctician authorities.
Magnificence
Hann is always cool and collected, keeping it even when he's angry, while staying Affably Evil the whole time. Even when Eden brings his plan down he still keeps his cool and sees through the heroes attempts to trick him.
Hann is also a From Nobody to Nightmare that took over the Antarctician crime world using only his keen intellect, and brought a world superpower's government to its knees, and the heroes all acknowledge he's righted about the level system being fucked up.
When Eden brings up his family it clearly angers him, but again he keeps his cool, it's a case Tranquil Fury, not flying into a rage.
Bastard-ness
Hann is a ruthless crime boss that his people brutally killed, brings mass chaos when he shuts down the level system and plans on taking it over when he turns it back on.
But every crime he commits has a purpose, he kills people brutally purely to maintain control over the underworld, and all that chaos is part of the plan to ensure that when he brings the system back the people will flock to him for order. Also he's nowhere as bad the series' other bad guys, like the Republic and colonies unleashing plagues on their populations and executing them. So not too much a bastard.
Conclusion
I think Dominic Hann is a solid ![[tup]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Thumbs_up_emoticon_3268.png "[thumb up]"){kind=small}
@Satoshi Does Penny actually do anything bad other than steal League Points from the League? Please correct me if I’m wrong, but reading up on Team Star, they just sound more like bullies themselves than outright bastards.
Edited by PurpleEyedGuma on Jan 16th 2023 at 5:55:29 AM
Classy, Refined, Unstable
Got no concerns from me with these E Ps on this page, nice job all!
Edited by WetFlannels on Jan 16th 2023 at 10:56:30 AM
Yes, yes, old boy, we'd like nothing more than to stay and be a part of your primitive, barbaric society, but duty calls, duty calls...
Likewise!
Caesar
So who else we got coming from new works, folks?
WHAT A WONDERFUL DAY!
@Guma: Team Star aren't even bullies, that's the point of their storyline. Merely victims who got blamed when they tried to fight back. The bastardy comes from Penny manipulating you into stopping them without disclosing what's really going on until the end. Which I agree isn't much, but people wanted an EP.
Lies and Violence!
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
I have two from the recently finished Stargirl, just waiting for a new page.
I got two from the new World of Warcraft expansion. I'm somewhat excited because they're actual antagonists for once. I was gonna wait a day or two for things to slow down, but this thread is going much slower than CM.
Think you're tough because you made it through Lord of the Rings? Real men survive The Silmarillion.
Caesar
Nice, nice! Remind me, what's the reason the Stargirl examples don't go on the Arrowverse page, again? I thought it was part of that 'verse?
WHAT A WONDERFUL DAY!
Lies and Violence!
They only had a minor cameo during Crisis along with Doom Patrol, Swamp-Thing, the horrible show that will not be named that the infinitely better Doom Patrol sort of but not really spun off from, etc. I believe there's some Word of God somewhere that the Jay Garrick featured in both shows is the same, and I think there's a crossover in the works, but until that materializes there's no real concrete connection.
"The Juice is Loose."
Not really. There is very little connecting them in actuality beyond a cameo in Crisis. It is part of that franchise about as much as Smallville or the DC Extended Universe.
Edited by Bullman on Jan 16th 2023 at 8:06:45 AM
Fan-Preferred Couple cleanup thread
While a version of them technically exists in the Arrowverse multiverse, the show itself doesn't fall under the Arrowverse franchise, at least not in the same way Black Lightning does.
Classy, Refined, Unstable
For new works I've got 2 from Violent Night, the other 5 I've got planned are from things long gone past.
![[down]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_down.png "[down]"){kind=icon}
Huh exact time posting lmao
Edited by WetFlannels on Jan 16th 2023 at 2:11:14 PM
Yes, yes, old boy, we'd like nothing more than to stay and be a part of your primitive, barbaric society, but duty calls, duty calls...
Caesar
Ahhh ok that makes sense, I hadn't checked in on the 'verse lately and I recalled seeing Stargirl in Crisis so I wasn't sure, thanks for the answers, everyone!
WHAT A WONDERFUL DAY!
Indeed, the Arrowverse has quite a number of universes and Stargirl merely cameos despite its switch to the CW.
Caesar
And with the completion of The Flash, I doubt we'll see those universes doing much more crossing over in the future, so thankfully shouldn't cause any MB page issues in the near or far future!
WHAT A WONDERFUL DAY!
Caesar
EDIT: Whoops, wrong thread.
Edited by Ravok on Jan 16th 2023 at 7:29:16 AM
WHAT A WONDERFUL DAY!
Bumping so I'm not page bottom.
Alright, lemme knock out my MB post for the day:
What's the work?
Andor is the latest entry in the live-action portion of Star Wars, centering in on the past of Cassian Andor, a prominent player in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
We follow Andor as he goes from scrapper and crook to a warrior for the Rebel Alliance in facing off against the Empire, the show taking us to various sections of the galaxy to see the political machinations on both sides of the brewing war. It's one of the best products Disney has given us from the franchise, and also brings forth some of the best original characters!
Who is Luthen Rael? What makes him a candidate?
Played brilliantly by Stellan Skarsgård, Luthen Rael masquerades as an antique shop owner on the the capital of the Empire, Coruscant, putting on flamboyant, affable airs to all of his customers as he deals in everything from ancient armor to holocrons...but behind the scenes? Luthen is the OG mastermind of the entirety of the Rebellion, working to subvert the Empire and free the galaxy from its tyranny...no matter the cost.
For years, Luthen has ran an underground network of rebel operatives throughout the Empire, orchestrating small strikes at the dictatorial power while planting moles into the organization itself, using a combination of charisma, blackmail and threats to keep pawns and even his own "allies" controlled. Luthen uses his connections in politics to orchestrate the initiation and rise of Mon Mothma herself to rebellion leadership, regularly staging subtle meetings with her to hash out schemes under the nose of Imperials.
Luthen has done such a good job of covering his tracks over the years that only a single, particularly suspicious Imperial intelligence agent even mildly suspects a mastermind of rebels, and when his presence is finally "discovered" to even exist, the only info the Empire can attribute to him is the nickname "Axis" as a representation of how countless rebel cells all circle back to him.
During the events of the series itself, Luthen arrives on the planet of Ferrix seeking to oversee the acquisition of an Imperial Starpath unit, one of many technological thefts and dirty dealings of Imperial tech that Luthen has orchestrated. When he runs into the rogue criminal Cassian Andor in his operations, Luthen sees the potential for a helpful pawn. Through both words and actions as he helps Andor fight off Imperial security, outwit Ferrix's law enforcement and flee the planet, Luthen sways Andor to become a hired gun for the Rebellion.
Luthen is working towards staging a truly devastating operation towards the Empire, having spent many long months creating a team, strategy and plan to rob the Imperial garrison on Aldhani, hoping to thieve the quarterly payroll for an entire sector of the Empire and use the funds to finance the Rebellion. Thanks to Luthen's inside sources, turncoats and tactics, the Aldhani heist is pulled off by Andor and a Luthen's handpicked team, sending the Empire into mass panic over the terrorist act. The Empire, in response, begins constricting the galaxy even further, oppressing planets worse than ever before...this was Luthen's plan. Luthen has long realized that people will allow tyranny to reign if it happens in slow, developing bursts, so Luthen's goal, alongside the creation of the Rebellion? Has always been to poke and prod the Empire to make it treat people even worse, so that the desire for uprising will become even greater and quicker.
Luthen's ruthlessness extends beyond this, too. When he learns from his sources that the Empire is setting a trap for one of Luthen's rebel allies? Luthen...lets the attack happen and hundreds of rebels die to keep his information source secure. Even Saw Gerrera, resident Knight Templar of the rebellion, takes serious persuasion by Luthen to let it happen, and Saw expresses genuine shock and respect at Luthen for the level of pragmatism he's willing to go to.
Now, Luthen initially plans to hunt down and silence Andor after the Aldhani job, given extra pushing by his right-hand and partner Kleya to eliminate Andor to tie up loose ends since he's "just" a hired gun and not a true believer. Luthen uses his spies and listening devices to learn that Andor's mother has died on Ferrix and, knowing his opponent, Luthen lies in wait on Ferrix until he can take down Andor for good...though eventually meeting up with Andor, the season ends with Luthen witnessing the true belief in Rebellion that Andor's mother possessed, and Andor makes Luthen an offer to become a genuine, full-time Rebel, with Luthen laughing in delight at the new partnership they're about to commence.
Is Luthen magnificent?
Luthen is amazing. He's revealed to be the Big Good behind the entire Rebel Alliance...with the addendum that he embraces being a ruthless monster, fully aware that future generations of Rebels would loathe him, because he knows it has to be done to give them the fighting chance. Mon Momtha, Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia...all of them ultimately have Luthen to thank for his machinations against the Empire and his work towards securing the Rebel Alliance as a true threat to Imperial occupation.
Luthen gets panicked more than once and he makes some mistakes, but he always, always bounces right back and the sheer depth of what he gets up to is...astounding.
Is he a bastard?
Yeah, like I said? Luthen knows he's a bad man. He's fully aware that other Rebels would hate the steps he takes as he sacrifices his own forces to push the Empire into being even more evil, all to spark a wave of Rebellion against the cruelty. Luthen is directly and indirectly behind a galaxy's worth of pain, but it is all for the greater good. It's all to create a galaxy that will be free, and won't need people like him in it.
By the finale, wherein he sees an example of Andor's mother using hope to inspire Rebellion as opposed to his warmongering, he does seem to come to something of a realization that his methods have been too harsh, but what he has done for the galaxy cannot be overstated.
Final Verdict?
One of the easiest keepers from this franchise by far, and Riley will have 2 more to discuss in short order!
WHAT A WONDERFUL DAY!