History Main / GeneralRipper

* [[ColonelBadass Col. Miles Quaritch]] from ''Film/{{Avatar}}''. He is focused primarily on [[ItsPersonal Jake]] [[ThisIsUnforgivable after]] [[ThisMeansWar he]] [[MookFaceTurn sides with the Na'vi]], but he also quite enjoys [[HumansAreBastards stomping Na'vi]] from his giant gunship.

* [[ColonelBadass Col.]] [[TheDeterminator Miles Quaritch]] from ''Film/{{Avatar}}''. He is focused primarily on [[ItsPersonal Jake]] [[ThisIsUnforgivable after]] [[ThisMeansWar he]] [[MookFaceTurn sides with the Na'vi]], but he also quite enjoys [[HumansAreBastards stomping Na'vi]] from his giant gunship.

** The RedHulk has his own GeneralRipper nemesis in General Fortean, Ross's former apprentice, who blames him for Ross's death. [[spoiler:Of course, Red Hulk ''is'' Ross.]]

** Kurtz is a unique example, being quite aware that he is in fact a GeneralRipper. He thinks that if America wants to win the Vietnam War, it cannot afford to "play fair" - it needs "Rippers" to do the dirty work and is acting hypocritically by pretending that the war can be won "cleanly" with nothing but a technological advantage over the enemy (and history tells us he was right, too). He basically gives his superiors two choices: either get the hell out of 'Nam, or become as ruthless as he has become. His final actions indicate that he prefers they choose the first option, or at least doesn't believe they can afford to choose the second.

** Sisko becomes a full blown GeneralRipper in "In the Pale Moonlight" when he [[spoiler: authorizes the creation of a fake Dominion plot to attack Romulus in order to get the Romulans to come into the war and then covers up the murder of the Romulan Senator who discovers the hoax and threatens to expose it. To quote: "So: I lied... I cheated... I bribed men to cover the crimes of other men. I am an accessory to murder. But the most damning thing of all: I think I can live with it, and if I had to do it all over again, I would."]]

* Admiral Helena Cain, commanding officer of the battlestar Pegasus in the rebooted ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|Reimagined}}'', may be a rare female example -- a hotshot young military commander who cracked under pressure after the Cylon attack, leading her to abandon civilians to die after "requisitioning" all their supplies and fuel, use torture, allow her troops to keep their morale up by raping female Cylons, and punish any disobedience with ''summary execution'', all in the name of her suicidal quest to obliterate the Cylon fleet.
** Helena Cain is the new series' take on Admiral Cain (played by Lloyd Bridges) from the original ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|Classic}}''. The original Admiral Cain was apparently based in turn on George S. Patton. Ron Moore notes this in the Razor DVD commentary.
*** The original Cain, much like the character he was based upon, was more of a MagnificentBastard than a GeneralRipper.

[[folder:Film]]
* As mentioned above, the TropeNamer, Air Force General Jack D. Ripper in ''DrStrangelove''. He is the epitome of cool, collected calm, despite being completely insane. If you were to watch a dubbed version in a language you didn't understand, you could easily be excused for thinking he's the one rational person in the film.
** Turgidson (also mentioned above), on the other hand, is clearly channeling his inner three-year-old and having a great time playing soldiers (watch him explaining how the bomber could avoid radar if you doubt this).
* [[ColonelBadass Col.]] [[TheDeterminator Miles Quaritch]] from ''Film/{{Avatar}}''. He is focused primarily on [[ItsPersonal Jake]] [[ThisIsUnforgivable after]] [[ThisMeansWar he]] [[MookFaceTurn sides with the Na'vi]], but he also quite enjoys [[HumansAreBastards stomping Na'vi]] from his giant gunship.
-->"And that's how you scatter the roaches."
* General Orlov, from the JamesBond film ''Film/{{Octopussy}}''.

* Mercilessly skewered in ''MarsAttacks!''. General Decker rants and raves with the best of them, but [[ProperlyParanoid his instincts prove entirely correct]] about [[WeComeInPeaceShootToKill the nature of]] [[AlwaysChaoticEvil the Martians]].

* A lot of the Joint Chiefs are portrayed this way in ''Film/ThirteenDays''.
* Jim Phelps in the first ''MissionImpossible'' movie shows a fair number of the symptoms of this character type.
* Notable subversion with General Beringer in ''WarGames'': he seems at first to be a stereotypical General Ripper, and is quite prepared to launch America's nuclear missiles at the Soviet Union, but he is actually very reasonable, and makes the decision not to launch when Falken tells him that the incoming Soviet attack is just a computer glitch.

* General Rogard in ''WesternAnimation/TheIronGiant'' is an inversion. He acts [[ReasonableAuthorityFigure reasonably]] and cautiously, leaving the ranting and recklessness to Kent Mansley, a minor government agent. Who still manages to almost get everybody killed. Also, when it seemingly becomes apparent that the Iron Giant was a hoax [[spoiler:due to Hogarth warning Dean beforehand about the military's arrival]], Rogard makes it quite clear that he did not like how Mansley got them involved for what was apparently nothing, shouting at the top of his lungs to Mansley outside, in his words: "Do you realize how much hardware I've brought down here? YOU JUST BLEW MILLIONS OF UNCLE SAM'S DOLLARS OUT OF YOUR BUTT!" and heavily implies that he's going to fire Mansley for the seeming blunder when they return to UsefulNotes/WashingtonDC.

* General Mandible of ''WesternAnimation/{{Antz}}'' who deliberately sends thousands of soldiers loyal to the queen to their deaths in an attack on the termites, so that he can then wipe out the rest of the colony, and start his own colony that consists of nothing but soldiers in it.

* Subverted in ''MonstersVsAliens'' with General Warren R. Monger. He comes across as this trope, but proves in the crunch to be reasonable and decent.
* Shen from ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda2'', who is an EvilAlbino peacock warlord who hates kung fu and wants to destroy it forever using an army of wolves and giant cannons. He almost even wiped out the entire Panda race.

* Governor Ratcliffe from ''Disney/{{Pocahontas}}''. "Savages! Savages! Barely even human!"
* The Roswellian General in BuzzLightyearOfStarCommand.
* WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender: The antagonists have numerous, in a flashback, one thinks of sending new recruits in a suicidal charge to distract the enemy.

[[caption-width-right:339:DoctorDoom? [[SpiderMan The Green Goblin?]] The '' '''[[BoldInflation real]]''' menace is those '''damn superheroes'''!''[[note]]But then again, this panel is from a ''WhatIf'' story that ends with Ben Grimm now an insane rampaging menace as the Thing with the equivalent strength of the Hulk. [[AllTheOtherReindeer But this]] ''[[AllTheOtherReindeer is]]'' the MarvelUniverse, so many of you probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference if we didn't tell you.[[/note]]]]

** Arguably Sisko becomes a full blown GeneralRipper in "In the Pale Moonlight" when he [[spoiler: authorizes the creation of a fake Dominion plot to attack Romulus in order to get the Romulans to come into the war and then covers up the murder of the Romulan Senator who discovers the hoax and threatens to expose it. To quote: "So: I lied... I cheated... I bribed men to cover the crimes of other men. I am an accessory to murder. But the most damning thing of all: I think I can live with it, and if I had to do it all over again, I would."]]

** Don't forget Commodore Decker in TOS episode "The Doomsday Machine." To be fair, Decker's goal was actually fine, but his methods were suicidal... literally, as it turned out.

** And don't forget Varian Wrynn, the "leader" of the Alliance, that hates the Horde so much he would rather let an EldritchAbomination of Lovecraftian proportion destroy the planet, than help the neutral faction battling it because they also asked the Horde to help too. (Of course, the fact that Garrosh Hellscream had picked a fight with him moments earlier probably didn't help.)
*** Over time, he becomes more reasonable, at least in comparison to Garrosh, and Jaina while she gets close to JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope in the aftermath of Theramore's destruction. Sky Admiral Rogers arguably takes up the mantle, as she [[ItsPersonal harbors a grudge against the Horde]] for [[YouKilledMyFather destroying Southshore and killing her parents]], and [[MoralEventHorizon machine gunning Horde troops trying to surrender while barely staying afloat after the destruction of their ship]].

*** Actually, Word of God said that [[spoiler: Loghain did not have anything to do with the Cousland Massacre Howe enacted (and that Loghain actually despised Howe a great deal) and that the poisoning of Eamon was only meant to render him comatose. While it *could have* killed him, that was not a likely possibility, and even if it did show itself Loghain had an agent sent there (Berwick the Elf) to inform him so he could send the antidote. Of course, given that Berwick was employed by a man under Howe's employ, Howe would've gotten the information first and would have conveniently "forgotten" to mention that little detail to his boss man Loghain since Howe wants as much land as he can get. And as for the Bannorn? Well, YMMV on who actually started the civil war. Loghain's speech didn't help matters when Teagan stepped up, but prior to that in that very same cutscene his focus was on the Darkspawn with a united Ferelden after the king's death so they wouldn't be seen in the eyes of their neighbors (Orlais) as being weakened by a power vaccuum. And considering Orlais has always taken advantage of "saving" weakened nations in Blights past (and not just Blights), well... can you blame him?]] Self-fulfilling prophecy I guess. He tried so hard to avoid what he knew would happen that it ended up happening anyway, and now Orlais is veering their ugly head.

'''''[[DrStrangelove Bodily fluids!!]]'''''

** Arguably Sisko becomes a full blown GeneralRipper in "In the Pale Moonlight" when he [[spoiler: authorizes the creation of a fake Dominion plot to attack Romulus in order to get the Romulans to come into the war and then covers up the murder of the Romulan Senator who discovers the hoax and threatens to expose it. To quote: "So: I lied... I cheated... I bribed men to cover the crimes of other men. I am an accessory to murder. But the most ****ing thing of all: I think I can live with it, and if I had to do it all over again, I would."]]

** The NCR are not exempt from this. Most notable are Colonel Cassandra Moore, whose answer to the various tribes of Vegas seem to just be to try and wipe them out (especially the Brotherhood of Steel, to the point that she'll be ****ed at you for managing to come to a diplomatic solution between the two) and General Oliver, a GloryHound GeneralFailure whose main strategy is just to bide his time until he can ZergRush the Legion.

** The [[VideoGame/MassEffect1 first game's]] prequel novel ''Literature/MassEffectRevelation'' gives shades of this to the game's BigBad, Saren Arterius. His FreudianExcuse for [[FantasticRacism hating humans]] is that his brother was killed in the [[WeComeInPeaceShootToKill First Contact War]]. Early in the book he brutally slaughters a group of turian smugglers for selling to humans; upon telling this reasoning to a wounded smuggler, said smuggler replies that the war is over. Saren *****es him out, then shoots him.

[[caption-width-right:339:DoctorDoom? [[SpiderMan The Green Goblin?]] The '' '''[[BoldInflation real]]''' menace is those '''damn superheroes'''!''[[note]]But then again, this panel is from a ''WhatIf'' story that ends with Ben Grimm now an insane rampaging menace as the Thing with the equivalent strength of the Hulk. [[AllTheOtherReindeer But this]] ''[[AllTheOtherReindeer is]]'' the MarvelUniverse, so this is perfectly in-character for them anyway.[[/note]]]]

[[caption-width-right:339:DoctorDoom? [[SpiderMan The Green Goblin?]] The '' '''[[BoldInflation real]]''' menace is those '''damn superheroes'''!''[[note]]But then again, this panel is from a ''WhatIf'' story that ends with Ben Grimm now an insane rampaging menace as the Thing with the equivalent strength of the Hulk. [[AllTheOtherReindeer But this]] [[AllTheOtherReindeer ''is'']] the MarvelUniverse, so this is perfectly in-character for them anyway.[[/note]]]]

[[caption-width-right:339:DoctorDoom? [[SpiderMan The Green Goblin?]] The '' '''[[BoldInflation real]]''' menace is those '''damn superheroes'''!''[[note]]But then again, this panel is from a ''WhatIf'' story that ends with Ben Grimm now an insane rampaging menace as the Thing with the equivalent strength of the Hulk.[[/note]]]]

* Admiral Marcus in ''Film/StarTrekIntoDarkness'' blames everything on the Klingons, wants to start a war with them, builds a new class of warship to defeat them, and is willing to blow up another Federation ship that wants to talk reason to him.

* In Slightly****ed, all but a few angel and demon characters are like this about the other side. Both groups at least start out about like humans do, but are then indoctrinated into hatred.

* Tasen Elite Krotera from ''VideoGame/{{Iji}}''. His response to Iji's plea to get the Tasen to leave Earth is to refuse and then attempt to kill her, even if she hasn't killed a single Tasen up to this. If you're playing on the [[PacifistRun Pacifist route]], this attitude causes him to get killed [[spoiler:[[Big****Villains by one of his own troops]].]] However, he ''does'' have a very good reason to refuse Iji: [[spoiler:Enemy X is actually here, and the Komato are quite capable of exterminating every last Tasen if they find out where they are.]] No one ever thought of both species peacefully staying on Earth.

* [[TheDragon Legate Lanius]] of Caesar's Legion in ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas''. The rank of Legate is equivocal to General, and Lanius literally means [[TheButcher butcher]]... so his translated name is [[ExactlyWha****aysOnTheTin General Butcher]]. An interesting example, as he was elevated to his rank ''[[AsskickingEqualsAuthority because]]'' of his BloodKnight tendencies, not ''despite'' them.

->"''Restraint? Why are you so concerned with saving their lives? The whole idea is to kill the bastards. At the end of the war, if there are two Americans and one Russian, we win.''"
-->-- '''General Thomas S. Power''', Commander of the U.S. Strategic Air Command (1957-1964)
%% One quote per page please. See the TipsWorksheet. Extras can go on the quote page.

[[caption-width-right:339:DoctorDoom? [[SpiderMan The Green Goblin?]] The ''[==]'''[[BoldInflation real]]''' menace is those '''**** superheroes'''[==]''![[note]]But then again, this panel is from a ''WhatIf'' story that ends with Ben Grimm now an insane rampaging menace as the Thing with the equivalent strength of the Hulk.[[/note]]]]

* Kurtz in Conrad's ''Literature/HeartOfDarkness'',, although not a general, is an agent for an ivory trader, turns himself into a demigod amongst the natives and is unable to pull himself away from the jungle where he can carry on hunting his worshippers, was the direct inspiration of all the other Kurtz's in this list (and was himself based on real life man 'Klein'), making this trope OlderThanRadio.

* Alloran-Semitur-Corass in ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' behaves like this in ''The Andalite Chronicles'' (he's disgraced because [[spoiler:he released the quantum virus onto the Hork-Bajir homeworld, literally breaking nearly all Hork-Bajir into molecules]]) and he demands that Elfangor slaughter an entire pool of Yeerk prisoners. In a cruel twist of fate, Elfangor's defiance and insistence on not becoming the monster [[spoiler:directly leads to Alloran becoming Visser Three, the only Andalite-Controller]].

* Shen from ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda2'', who is an EvilAlbino pea**** warlord who hates kung fu and wants to destroy it forever using an army of wolves and giant cannons. He almost even wiped out the entire Panda race.

Monster attack? It was Enemy X. Terrorist attack? Gotta be Enemy X. Local superhero? Obvious spy for Enemy X. Everything quiet on the front? Enemy X is just lulling us into complacency so he can strike when our guard is down. Does it look like Enemy X is trying to surrender? It's a trick! [[InterruptedCooldownHug Shoot em' while they're distracted!]] Wait, you say Enemy X was defeated last year? Sure, that's just what [[GovernmentConspiracy they]] want you to think!

** Note he wiped the city out by [[spoiler:letting the [[NinjaZombiePirateRobot Alien Ghosts]] inside a bit in a bid to scare his superiors into thinking the orbital bombardment was necessary. He thought the aliens were just aliens. He didn't know that [[OurGhostsAreDifferent they were ghosts]], or that they would be able to phase through the walls and invade the city with such ease]].
*** Regardless of whether he accepted that they were ghosts or not, the fact that he fought them this long and somehow didn't know that they could phase through walls and survive places where humans couldn't even though they do this ALL THE TIME qualifies him as toodumbtolive.

* General Marcus in ''Star Trek Into Darkness'' blames everything on the Klingons, wants to start a war with them, builds a new class of warship to defeath them, and is willing to blow up another Federation ship that wants to talk reason to him.

[[caption-width-right:339:DoctorDoom? [[SpiderMan The Green Goblin?]] The ''[==]'''[[BoldInflation real]]''' menace is those '''damn superheroes'''[==]''![[note]]But then again, this panel is from a ''WhatIf'' story that ends with Ben Grimm now an insane rampaging menace as the Thing with the equivalent strength of the Hulk.[[/note]]]]

** Arguably Sisko becomes a full blown GeneralRipper in "In the Pale Moonlight" when he [[spoiler: authorizes the creation of a fake Dominion plot to attack Romulus in order to get the Romulans to come into the war and then covers up the murder of the Romulan Senator who discovers the hoax and threatens to expose it. To quote: "So: I lied... I cheated... I bribed men to cover the crimes of other men. I am an accessory to murder. But the most damning thing of all: I think I can live with it, and if I had to do it all over again, I would."]]

* [[TheDragon Legate Lanius]] of Caesar's Legion in ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas''. The rank of Legate is equivocal to General, and Lanius literally means [[TheButcher butcher]]... so his translated name is [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin General Butcher]]. An interesting example, as he was elevated to his rank ''[[AsskickingEqualsAuthority because]]'' of his BloodKnight tendencies, not ''despite'' them.
** The NCR are not exempt from this. Most notable are Colonel Cassandra Moore, whose answer to the various tribes of Vegas seem to just be to try and wipe them out (especially the Brotherhood of Steel, to the point that she'll be pissed at you for managing to come to a diplomatic solution between the two) and General Oliver, a GloryHound GeneralFailure whose main strategy is just to bide his time until he can ZergRush the Legion.

* Tasen Elite Krotera from ''VideoGame/{{Iji}}''. His response to Iji's plea to get the Tasen to leave Earth is to refuse and then attempt to kill her, even if she hasn't killed a single Tasen up to this. If you're playing on the [[PacifistRun Pacifist route]], this attitude causes him to get killed [[spoiler:[[BigDamnVillains by one of his own troops]].]] However, he ''does'' have a very good reason to refuse Iji: [[spoiler:Enemy X is actually here, and the Komato are quite capable of exterminating every last Tasen if they find out where they are.]] No one ever thought of both species peacefully staying on Earth.

** The [[VideoGame/MassEffect1 first game's]] prequel novel ''Literature/MassEffectRevelation'' gives shades of this to the game's BigBad, Saren Arterius. His FreudianExcuse for [[FantasticRacism hating humans]] is that his brother was killed in the [[WeComeInPeaceShootToKill First Contact War]]. Early in the book he brutally slaughters a group of turian smugglers for selling to humans; upon telling this reasoning to a wounded smuggler, said smuggler replies that the war is over. Saren bitches him out, then shoots him.

* In SlightlyDamned, all but a few angel and demon characters are like this about the other side. Both groups at least start out about like humans do, but are then indoctrinated into hatred.

* Shen from ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda2'', who is an EvilAlbino peacock warlord who hates kung fu and wants to destroy it forever using an army of wolves and giant cannons. He almost even wiped out the entire Panda race.