Mastermind

Masterminds are villains that are brainiacs. They are smart, highly intelligent and are characterized by a clever personality in which they will plan things to amazing lengths to the point of being one step ahead of everyone and always have a backup plan in mind. As such, they tend to be particularly skilled in fields likestrategy,manipulation,deception,adaptation,conspiracy,leadership,advancement,dealership and/ororganizing. These characters may often benon-action or evenweaklings, but they shouldnot be underestimated, as they can be extremely difficult to catch or defeat due to their incredibly complex schemes and forethought. However, not all Masterminds are physically weak. Some possessexceptional or even superhuman-level strength,combat expertise, and/or may qualify asOne-Man Armies, combining their brilliant minds with formidable physical power.

They are usually referred to as "the brain behind it all", "evil geniuses" and similar tomaster manipulators are, they rarely show themselves directly towards their enemy and love to deploy mind games to manipulate anyone, including the heroes. Most of the time, masterminds are seen having henchmen, guards, servants and/or (a) right-hand.

Masterminds are generally defeated if the hero or another character (whetherevil or not) finds a way to exploit flaws of their own such as theirarrogance oregotism (e.g. inHannibal,Mason Verger was pushed by his assistant amongst the boars and then eaten alive by them), ifthe hero(es) are of similar intelligence (e.g. inDeath Note, Near eventually cornered and forcedLight Yagami to confess he was Kira the whole time), or by a huge stroke of luck (e.g. inThe Dark Knight, Batman caughtthe Joker off-guard at the very end of the movie).

Examples of well-known masterminds includeLex Luthor,Norman Osborn,Joker,Riddler,Judge Holden,Shockwave,Emperor Palpatine,Vito andMichael Corleone,Mysterio,Sōsuke Aizen,David Xanatos,Dr. Eggman,Ernst Stavro Blofeld,Satsuki Kiryūin,Hannibal Lecter,Light Yagami,Johan Liebert,Junko Enoshima,Walter White,James Moriarty,Emperor Zarkon, andRevolver Ocelot.

To qualify as a mastermind, such characters have to be rarely caught off-guard and must have a plan B, C, or D to fall back on should their original plan be foiled. They are the complete opposites ofDimwits, who are stupid and cannot make any smart decision. This means those two categories are completely different and a villain can never be both a mastermind and a dimwit. Those two categories must be kept separated. Only exceptionsHostile Species (where the members of the species may vary wildly in terms of intelligence) oran organization (where they have equal parts unintelligent and intelligent members). However, it is possible for them to beincompetent likeschemers for example, albeit rarely. They are generally as such if they are acomical character whose failures are played for laughs while it is well-established that they are incredibly smart and logical. (e.g.Captain Hook,Wile E. Coyote,Heinz Doofenshmirtz,The Interesting Twins From Beneath The Mountain,Mojo Jojo ,Dr. Neo Cortex,XXXL Professor,Kent Mansley,Vicky, andPlankton).

Also,manipulative Machiavellians, or skilledtricksters (e.g.It,Death,Art the Clown,Jax,The Yellow Rabbit,Odalia Blight andSkitzo) are not necessarily masterminds unless they meet the aforementioned criteria and are proved to be successful in most of their plans (e.g.The Coachman,Dimentio,Kefka Palazzo,Bill Cipher,Absolute Solver, andMarx).