Meanwhile, he tells Buckingham "infer the bastardy of Edwards children." (III.v.75) Richard invented this rumor to prove to the mayor that all of his words, all he was saying were the truth. The manipulation of love and politics is very similar to that of Jim Moriarty, the villain of Sherlock Holmes. Moriarty could and should be held to the highest standard of villainous acts. .
Both Moriarty and Richard use manipulation as their key to controlling people and both hold intelligence beyond the average mind. The two of these villainous characteristics are what allows people to maintain the honorable title of villain. In the first episode of Sherlock, Moriarty is the man behind the curtains, merely the puppeteer, who is telling his minion to commit the deeds he doesn't want to do. The deed is finding people who seem unhappy with their life and kidnapping them, with the final step of giving them a choice between two pills- one would be fatal while the other is placebo. Most of the people had the unfortunate fate of choosing the wrong pill, but all of this was for Moriarty's amusement, to see Sherlock struggle to solve the crime. Manipulating people require a massive amount of knowledge, knowing who the audience is, their intelligence level, are they naive, and so on. But, Richard begins to lose his skill of manipulation as the play progresses; people are beginning to catch on to his infinite white lies. Moriarty, on the other hand, maintains grip of his skill of manipulation, even while his enemy, Sherlock, knows what he is capable of he still manages to manipulate Sherlock through the people he loves. Lucifer, in the TV series Supernatural, is similar to that of Moriarty and Richard in that that all want something they know isn't theirs and want it through whatever means necessary. Lucifer requires that you give him access to the vessel, human body, so that he may roam the earth.