Mastermind

"It was then that I made the discovery that was to change my life for a second time, viz., that the criminal underclass - the thieves, burglars, counterfeiters and con-men who were the plague of London - were all unremittingly stupid. I thought I would be afraid of them. As things turned out, I would have felt more anxiety walking through a field of sheep. I saw that once that what they lacked, crucially, was organisation and that, as a mathematician, I was ideally suited to the task. If I could bring the same discipline to their nefarious activities as I could to binomial coefficients, I would create a force that could take on the world. I will confess that, although it was the intellectual challenge that first interested me, I was already thinking of personal profit for I was growing tired of living hand-to-mouth."
— Professor James Moriarty, on becoming the greatest criminal mastermind of all time

Masterminds are considered geniuses among geniuses; in other words, they are among the most intelligent beings in existence and are characterized by a personality in which they will plan things to amazing lengths and always have a backup plan.

To qualify as a Mastermind, such characters have to be rarely caught off-guard and must has a Plan B, C, or D to fall back on should their original plan be foiled.

The only way a Mastermind can be defeated is if the hero or another character (whether evil or not) finds a way to exploit their arrogance (e.g. Supreme Leader Snoke was unexpectedly killed by his apprentice after a final insult; in Hannibal, Mason Verger was pushed by his assistant amongst the boars and then eaten alive by them), if they are of similar intelligence (e.g. Near eventually cornered and forced Light Yagami to confess he was Kira the whole time), or by a huge stroke of luck (e.g. in the Dark Knight, Batman caught off-guard the Joker at the very end of the movie).

Examples of well-known Masterminds include Lex Luthor, Norman Osborn, John Doe, Dr. Ivo Eggman Robotnik, Auric Goldfinger and Professor Moriarty.

A true mastermind CANNOT be a Dimwit. Also, villains with an enhanced intelligence or skilled tricksters are NOT masterminds; such characters must show a remarkable I.Q. and plan almost everything.

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