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
![[tup]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/thumbs_up_emote.png "[thumb up]"){kind=small}
for Scarlet, Lupin and Erik.
Switching to ![[tdown]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/thumbs_down_emote.png "[thumb down]"){kind=small}
on Claudia.
Reposting my question from last page since no one responded to it.
I’ll take a potato chip… and EAT IT!
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
I’m fine with keeping it, sorry for not noticing sooner.
Dagded Dujardin
Lupin
Goku Black
arsene and Erik
Accumulating Filibuster Counters
Hello all. Having gotten round to playing Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, I feel that yet another of Night City's fixers potentially makes the cut, thanks to his Ascended Extra turn in this DLC:
What's the setting?
Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty is the first (and only) Expansion Pack DLC for Cyberpunk 2077, centred around Dogtown, the even more seedy underbelly of Night City. Planned as a luxurious leisure district for the super-rich, Dogtown was abandoned half-built in the aftermath of the Fourth Corporate War, leaving behind a mix of shanty towns and crumbling skyscrapers as a monument to corporate hubris, all ruled with an iron fist by the NUSA military man turned cunning warlord Kurt Hansen and his personal militia BARGHEST. V, lured there by the promise of a possible cure for the Relic corruption from the enigmatic Netrunner Song So Mi, winds up getting caught in a high-stakes espionage operation involving the President of the New United States of America, the worn-down secret agent Solomon Reed (portrayed by Idris Elba), and lost A.I.s that really, really should have been left alone. In any case, the events that unfold offer our candidate a far more prominent role than he played in the original game.Who is Mr. Hands, and what has he done?
- Mr. Hands, real name Wade Bleecker, was once an executive in the upper echelons of Petrochem, who wound up getting caught on the wrong side of a corporate power struggle. Managing to successfully evade his "termination", he would go on to become The Fixer for Pacifica and Dogtown, keeping his identity under wraps (and simultaneously gaining his nickname) by only showing his distinctive white cyber-hands on holocalls and leaving his face in shadow. In the base game, his only appearance involves him putting V in touch with the Voodoo Boys, who are largely responsible for V being stuck with the Relic in the first place, and also offering one inconsequential gig.
- Once the story of Phantom Liberty kicks off, however, Mr. Hands gains a much more prominent role. After the Marathon Level that introduces you to the expansionnote , he contacts V and "generously" provides them with forged credentials that allow them to enter and leave Dogtown as they please and a new vehicle. Of course, Hands' rationale for this is because V, at this point in the story, has established themselves to be pretty damn competent, and Hands seeks to exploit this by offering V a plethora of new gigs that all work towards his primary objective — undermining Hansen's rule to carve out a bigger slice of Dogtown for himself, through eliminating threats, building relationships with corporations and other stakeholders, and entrenching himself as a key power player. Provided V has helped him out enough, he will agree to meet with them in person, explaining his plans and giving them the coveted and closely guarded blueprints to the Black Sapphire, an abandoned hotel that serves as Hansen's stronghold, to allow V and Solomon Reed to infiltrate the building. Once again, this provides a major boon to Hands, as whatever happens from this point in the story, Hansen winds up dead, allowing him to essentially assume his place as Dogtown's kingpin — a later side quest allows V to help him install a puppet to take Hansen's place as leader of BARGHEST.
Is he magnificent?
- Retaining a love for the finer things in life from his Corpo days, Mr. Hands is a Consummate Professional who's described by the game's databank entry as a "businessman through and through - cool-headed, calculating and supremely focused on his objective" — it's also telling that despite being committed to bringing Kurt Hansen down, he operates right under his nose, and seemingly with his backing. He is extremely polite and cordial with V throughout his interactions with them, and his series of mutual favours are still rather generous: after all, Rogue only helped V after being paid and helping her resolve a problem, while Hands isn't expecting V to work for free.
- Furthermore, he is generally more satisfied when V resolves gigs without violence and through negotiation, and gets a fair handful of Pet the Dog moments: several of his gigs help out the general population of Dogtownnote , when the player meets him in person he can be overheard having a phone call with his young daughter who he seems to genuinely adore, and during another gig he's willing, at V's request, to help a Zetatech defector escape the wrath of his corporate masters, despite said gig being for Zetatech, with which he could undoubtedly curry favour with by turning the defector in, but keeps his word as a "gesture of goodwill".
Is he a bastard?
- When push comes to shove, like most of the Fixers in the game, Mr. Hands is ultimately a ruthless crime boss interested only in furthering his own power and wealth, no matter how many bodies he leaves in his wake. It's not like Dogtown becomes any less of a hellhole once he takes command, nor is there any indication he is planning to — after all, BARGHEST's profitable gun-running and Protection Racket operations are now under his control. Most of his redeeming features described above can be ultimately chalked up to Pragmatic Villainy — he prefers resolving situation without violence as this usually lets him further his connections with useful contacts (such as Dodger the Black Market boss and Alan Noël the NetWatch agent) who would otherwise be flatlined by V; he's polite and helpful to V because they're an indispensable tool in his plans; and the defector mentioned above is a skilled Techie who goes on to design a powerful new modified weapon for Hands.
Conclusion: As a conniving Chessmaster with plenty of Evil Virtues, we have a presumably-easy keeper here.
Edited by Azorius24 on May 5th 2024 at 10:23:28 AM
"The only thing which is certain, is that something will happen".
Goku Black
mr hands
Well, time for me to do my write-up:
- I Woke Up A Vampire:
- (Dylan Helsing)
- The Shapeshifter is the most powerful of the Mythics, as well as the biological mother of Carmela "Carmie" Henley. Forced to abandon her daughter as an infant, due to the family being harmed by Hunters, and Carmela's father being killed, the Shapeshifter left Carmela to be adopted and raised by a mortal family, waiting until the right time to inform her daughter about her destiny to unite humans and Mythics. She made a deal with the Collector to have him capture and collect and bunch of Blendeds, as a means to protect them, claiming to have the latter's daughter, and would occasionally check up on him by impersonating random people to get in his store. When Carmie came of age, the Shapeshifter sends warrior fairy Tristan to find and bring Carmie to her. Then after Tristan betrays the Shapeshifter and harms Carmie, Shapeshifter sacrifices most of her life and power to bring her daughter back, ending her arc with Carmie and her adoptive family accepting her.
Is this too long? Should I trim some of the bits?
I’ll take a potato chip… and EAT IT!
"Cool. Coolcoolcool."
Not the Eye
Lupin, Phantom and Hands
Could I get some more votes on Scarlet please.
for Mr. Hands.
I'm Sad Frogerson.
Hey everybody, it's time for what I plan to be a series of effort posts (might be dragged across a few days, but whatever).
This time, I'm returning to the original Transformers cartoon from the 1980s, since I've recently rewatched the series after finishing up the recap pages from the series. All the candidates I'm planning to discuss are basically the Villain of the Week for their respective episodes, since I didn't think any of the recurring Decepticons stood out enough beyond typical villain fare.
I should also put up the disclaimer that while I am going to discuss them in chronological order, I feel that also means I'll be discussing them from least to most likely to count. So, bare with me.
My first candidate hails from from the second season episode "Enter the Nightbird", where the Autobots are hired to help protect the latest invention of Dr. Fujiyama (the famous scientist). However, the Decepticons get their hands on it, which leads to our candidate:
Who Is She and What Does She Do?
Nightbird is a robotic ninja created by Dr. Fujiyama to be an aid to humanity and showcase the latest technological advances humankind has made in the field of robotics. During an unveiling at scientific conference, the Decepticons raid the auditorium and steal Nightbird. Megatron has Bombshell reprogram Nightbird to remove the limitations Dr. Fujiyama had placed on her and tripling her power capacity. With her full potential unlocked, Nightbird is given orders to infiltrate Autobot headquarters and steal a chip containing information on the world's energy supply... and exterminate any Autobot who gets in her way.
Nightbird makes her way towards the Ark and, using her ninja skills and magnetic feet, effortlessly bypasses the security systems set in place by the Autobots. She's soon confronted by Mirage after stealing the world energy chip, but quickly makes short work of him with a series of pressure point attacks. Mirage is able to warn the other Autobots and corner Nightbird, but she blinds them with a flash of light and makes her escape. The Autobots, having promised to return Nightbird unharmed to Dr. Fujiyama, head out to find her.
They eventually find Nightbird out in the desert and Optimus hits her with a stun ray. Bluestreak goes to check up on her, only for Nightbird to deck him in the face, having played "robotopossum". Nightbird quickly disarms Prime and takes his rifle before fleeing, since a ninja always takes a part of their enemy after a battle. The Autobots soon track her into a canyon and Nightbird engages them in a full-on fight. She disarms a few Autobots, uses shurikens to keep them at bay, catches a missile launched by Bluestreak and uses it to jam the glass gas coming out of Cliffjumper's arm, and tosses a series of metal disks to disable Jazz's speakers.
Eventually, the Autobots are able to summon an electro mesh prison to restrain Nightbird, but Megatron and the Decepticons come to her aid, with Megatron not wanting to lose such a valuable warrior like Nightbird. Megatron frees Nightbird, who proceeds to beat up Optimus. Starscream, having grown increasingly jealous of Nightbird after Megatron threatens to replace him with her, seizes an opportunity at paypack and blasts Nightbird with his null-ray while her back is turned, knocking her offline. The Autobots return Nightbird to Dr. Fujiyama, who deprograms her and puts her back in storage to prevent an incident like this from happening again. As she's locked away, Nightbird comes back online and glares in anger from within her container.
Is She Charming, Charismatic, and Good on Her Feet?
Nightbird is shown to be a very resourceful robot and is able to effortlessly disarm and subdue the Autobots that are after her. She slips through the Ark's security systems without alerting anyone until she steals the energy chip, and is formidable in a one-on-one fight. She's able to go up against Optimus Prime and subdue him, and takes on multiple Autobots at the same time without much trouble. While they do eventually gain an upper hand against her, it's not an easy feat for them to do despite outnumbering her several timesfold.
The main issue here is personality... or rather lack of. See, for most of the episode, Nightbird doesn't show much traits of sentience to the degree of the Autobots or Decepticons. She doesn't talk or really emote. She seems like a non-sapient robot that's just really well-programmed... until the final scene of the episode where she breaks her usual stoic expression to give a genuine Death Glare from within her container. Now, was she always intelligent, or did she gain it over time? It's hard to say, since she never appeared after this episode. She does demonstrate some personality traits of ninjas, such as taking Prime's rifle after disarming him, which he notes is a typical quality of ninja warriors. Whether this was programmed in, or something she developed is again unclear.
Is She a Bastard? Too Much of a Bastard?
While developed for non-lethal purposes with her... uh, shurikens, laser sword, and numerous other weapons, those restrictions are removed once the Decepticons get their hands on her and reprogram her. She becomes a very competent warrior, taking down Autobots quickly and efficiently. She doesn't resort to lethal blows, but that's mostly due to being outnumbered and preferring a quick getaway.
Competition?
For a one episode villain, she's fairly effective. She steals the Autobot's world energy chip, quickly disarms and subdues them, and only loses because Starscream gets jealous and shoots her in the back. Megatron is very pleased with how effective a fighter she is, praising her skills and going out of his way to rescue her when she's captured by the Autobots. He rarely displays such high praise to his fellow Decepticons, even fairly competent ones like Soundwave. The Autobots are holding back a bit because they don't want to damage her, but given they resort to using actual weapons as the fight goes on and still struggle against her, I think we give that a pass.
Now I know what you might be thinking. "Wait, aren't the Decepticons controlling her since they reprogrammed her?" And the answer is... no. While they remove her inhibitors that made her non-violent, amplify her power, and give her the orders to steal the world energy chip, that's about it. Nightbird is left to her own devices as the Decepticons survey her back at their base and their praise for her talents are specifically for her. No one is ever seen controlling her actions and she's treated like an autonomous individual. And by the end of the episode, she's shown to still have malicious intentions despite being deprogrammed.
Verdict?
So, the main issue here is whether Nightbird displays enough intelligence to really take her out of "just a machine" territory. I'd argue that the final scene does display she has developed an intelligent mind of her own and her autonomy under the Decepticon's control shows her feats can be attributed to her. I'm leaning towards giving her a , but I understand people who might object to that.
Scarlet, Arsene & Erik, Mr. Hands.
Unsure on the Nightbird, since it does look like she is the way she is due to being programmed by Dr. Fujiyama. I've had three robot MBs of my own approved, but all three are very explicitly rogue.
I'm sorry, would there be any more opinions on the Tsar-Maiden?
Edited by AutumnLeaves on May 3rd 2024 at 3:19:17 PM
I think for both Nightbird and the Tsar-Maiden.
Have a quote I'd like to propose.
Goku Black
So from the third grim variations episode. This one based on Hansel and Gretel.
Who is The old Woman?
- An old woman who runs a space station where children are raised in an oprhange to take care of themselves. Before being sent to earth to live on their own.
- She has her pair of robots Mama and Papa take care of them. Hansel and Gretel end up in trouble with Mama and a papa and sent to wander the woods at dark till daytime.
- Their the twins meet the old woman who explains and nudges them into learning more of their world. To become independent and able to fend for yourself. Their they learn their oprhange mysteriously has a border to an unknown place and that their fellow oprhans dissappear constantly.
- She teaches them a method to leave and explore their. They end up pursed by Mama who ends up destroyed or at least massively injured (that Part is unclear) and forced to stop.
- Hansel (Gretel is just a figment of his imagination in a twist) than journeys back to the witch and os given a choice now to take a candy and forgot everything or take the ship down. He chooses the later to his grief but at least gets to ij the wilderness of earth reunite with friends.
- At the end, the old woman and papa remet Mama who Papa grieves for and the old woman leaves for the next child to teach.
Magnificent?
Pretty great Trickster Mentor carefully steering the kids to become bold and independent enough to eventually strike it on their own. And taking their memories if they say no for now.
Bastard?
Well uh okay. This is super debatable.
Still at least emotionally this entire process is considered emotionally devastating. Having to leave all you have behind and is treated as such. Plus she seemed at least okay with Mama dying (or getting critically injured??? That part isn't clear. It is implied to be painful at least) as a result of her test. Who well a robot is at least seems sapient.
Theirs at least a level of moral ambiguoty here that I think is enough.
Conclusion?
I'll uh leave It up to you
"That's right mortal. By channeling my divine rage into power, I have forged a new instrument in which to destroy you."
I’ll take a potato chip… and EAT IT!
Nightbird, the old woman, and the stupendium quote
to the Maiden if I haven’t upvoted yet
for the old woman.
Dagded Dujardin
Nightbird and old woman
Not the Eye
Nightbird and old woman and Stupendium quote
Happy May the 4th everyone.
Edited by EmperorGeode on May 4th 2024 at 12:25:26 PM
Ultimate Moral Compass
Nightbird and the old woman
Berserk Button: misusing Nightmare Fuel
EDIT: Just noticed that there are already 4 candidates on this page, I'll repost this later.
Edited by Zuxtron on May 4th 2024 at 9:35:46 AM
Ultimate Moral Compass
Bump
"No running in the halls!"
My other Undead Girl Murder Farce, an interesting duo Erik the Phantom of the Opera and Arsene Lupin, yes Joker's Persona.
Who are Arsene and Erik:
The French reknown thief and the infamous Phantom of the Opera, Arsene and Erik are the initial villains of the London arc. Intending to steal the Penultimate Night, rare diamond that hides the Werewolves, Arsene took Erik seeing him the most valuable in the opera house. Charming him via seeing his value, Erik joined Arsene in his heist for the Penultimate Night.
Sending the challenge as standard to Phileas Fogg, the two used this to confuse the security force to take it, battling the legendary Sherlock Holmes in this fight. Disguising himself as a fake Sherlock, Arsene manage to figure the security mechanism by pretending to be Sherlock, only caught when the real one appeared. Escaping and later encountering the undead detective Aya by accident when helping Shizuka, Arsene sent his challenge to her intending to steal the diamond.
Seemingly impossible to grab, the two used a waterway to flood the safe of the diamond to near a vent, tying the case it in with a rope, as Arsene hid pretending to be the inspector. He was caught after Sherlock noticed his footsteps, but Arsene used this chance to steal the diamond pretending capture and getting Sherlock to reveal more info. Escaping Sherlock's grasp, it's only after opening the safe they found their next trap, Aya hiding in it when they weren't aware she was a disboweled head.
Caught by her and Tsuganu, the two used the chance when the Royce agency (inquisition) planned to kill them, splitting with Erik fighting Fatima and Arsene fighting for the diamond against Tsuganu and Reynold. Erik manage to beat Fatima using the dark, but Arsene got caught in the fight when Jack the Ripper joined after he and Tsuganu incanpicate Reynold. Seeing his chances fall, Arsene had Erik retreat since it became too dangerous. Failing the diamond they decided to take the silver safe instead, coming out with a prize despite not the main one to Aya's annoyance and unwilling respect.
The two made the right choice, with high casuality, showcasing Arsene's was able to survive adapting to his best alternative.
Magnificence:
A legendary thief, Arsene is able to steal anything with flair and Erik may not have the same reputation, he's still impressive as Arsene's partner. Overcoming the defense of the Penultimate Night, onlyfailing through outside forces, getting a consolation prize with the silver safe. Impressive when you see his competitors; Frankenstein's Monster, Moriarty, Carmella, Jack the Ripper, Sherlock Holmes, Aya the Undead Detective, Oni Killer Tsuganu, and the Inquisition, quite impressive.
Failed to steal the diamond, but came as one of the few true winners.
Too Evil:
Arsene is a shameless thief and Erik an uncaring psychopath, but they still have their standards. Neither are killers and are genuinely harmless when unprovoked. Both show honor and respect over other villains, and are respected if a little annoyed by Aya.
Final Verdict:
Solid duo, weird duo but it works.
"Are you the devil?" "Don't compare to me to those small fry" - Mir