History Main / NeverMessWithGranny

* Nana, the old woman from ''WesternAnimation/{{Madagascar}}''. She only has a couple of scenes in the first movie, where she [[GroinAttack kicks Alex in the crotch]] while shouting "Bad kitty!" She [[AscendedExtra proved so popular]] that she gets a bigger part in the SpinOff short ''WesternAnimation/TheMadagascarPenguinsInAChristmasCaper'', and in the sequel ''WesternAnimation/MadagascarEscape2Africa'' displays serious skills as a survivalist.

* ''VideoGame/MortalKombatX'' has a secret [[FinishingMove stage brutality]] in one stage that entails tossing a little old lady at the opponent. Usually, this only does damage to the opponent and leaves granny bleeding on the floor, but with the right input, granny will pound the opponent's face into pudding.

* In ''VideoGame/MegaManBattleNetwork4RedSunAndBlueMoon'', when two members of the Mafia try to beat up the old leader and take over, the screen goes dark, there are some sounds of fighting, and when the screen lights up again, the two Mafia members are K.O.'d. This was actually a parody and a shout-out to [[VideoGame/StreetFighterII Akuma/Gouki's Shun Goku Satsu]] because when the screen goes dark the Ashura Warp sound effect plays, then when when it lights up again it plays the sound usually heard when you KO someone with the move in ''Franchise/StreetFighter''.

%%* Oume, Otane, and Oshima Gouketsuji from the ''VideoGame/PowerInstinct'' series.

* Esther wouldn't seem like anything special in the first game in the ''VideoGame/MrHoppsPlayhouse'' series, where she's a PosthumousCharacter who went mad and died shortly before the game's events. However, in the third game, her soul is put into the body of her younger self, she manages to snag a magic medallion that can fire golden blasts of energy, and she isn't exactly fond of the army of shadow creatures threatening her granddaughter. [[spoiler: She even becomes an angel capable of taking down the local SatanicArchetype by the ending.]]

* ''Fanfic/WanderingMoon'': Archmage Clover the Clever. Even when she’s well into her 80s the mare manages to go on field missions with only her daughter as backup. Her most memorable example was a raid against Xanthos’s Manehatten warhouse where she [[spoiler: takes on not only a brigade of guards but also an Ursa Major single hoofedly. Even though she died in the attempt she still sent it packing with its tail between its legs.]]

* Although she is short, old, and her hands shake, Nanny from ''WesternAnimation/TheThiefAndTheCobbler'' is probably the most formidable good guy in the movie. As seen by the part, left in most cuts, where she restrains the thief from stealing her golden-yellow bananas...with a pair of huge, muscular arms...and then beats him like an old carpet.

* ''Choose Your Own Nightmare''

** On 'Series/{{Emergency}} episode "That Time of Year" an old lady flips and disables a self-defense instructor. After he is taken away to Rampart, she takes over as instructor.

* Mrs. S. from ''Series/OrphanBlack'' carries a double-barreled shotgun in case anyone lays a hand on her foster children or granddaughter. [[spoiler: She's also a brilliant [[TheChessmaster chessmaster]] with ties to many cutthroat conspiracies.]]

* Genkai from ''Manga/YuYuHakusho''. She wins half a round of the Dark Tournament pretty much single-handedly... ''after giving most of her power to Yusuke.'' Later in the series, she takes under her wing ''six'' C-class fighters (Chuu, Rinku, Jin, Touya, Shishiwakamaru, and Suzuki) and in months, [[TrainingFromHell trains them]] into upper A-class fighters. To put into perspective, even Rinku, the youngest of the group, is magnitudes more powerful than Younger Toguro, an earlier BigBad. And her star pupil, Yusuke? [[spoiler: Her training pushed Yusuke to the power level required to resurrect himself as an S-class demon]]. Much like [[Franchise/{{Dragonball}} Roshi]], Genkai breeds badass in spades.

* ''Franchise/XMen'':

* Among the ranks of the ComicBook/NewGods, one Granny Goodness is '''not''' a woman to be trifled with. She may look like an old lady, but she's been training soldiers for Darkseid at her "[[OrphanageOfFear orphanages]]" for who knows how long, and is stronger, faster and tougher than any normal human. [[http://31.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lrjdhgiZ4S1qzizmho1_1280.jpg At one point]] she blocked gun fire from ''an automatic weapon at point blank range'' by [[SpinToDeflectStuff spinning her weapon]]. She is the Apokolips Goddess of Child Abuse, after all.
* Gran'ma Ben of ''ComicBook/{{Bone}}''. [[spoiler:Also a RetiredBadass.]] At one point she takes on a pack of rat creatures with a fire poker and wins. She can also punch through walls and outrun any cow in the Valley. It's considered a ''really'' big deal when she actually gets hurt.
-->"I fought th' rats in th' ''big'' war!"
* Madam Fatal (despite technically being a younger man) invokes this trope, [[WholesomeCrossdresser dressing up as an old lady]] to fight crime.
* There is a story from the 2007 revival of ''Tales from the Crypt'' by Papercutz ("Ignoble Rot!", issue #7) in which a con man romances a young woman who he believes is heiress to a fortune, only to find out she was trailer trash and dumps her. He discovers that he died in his sleep and the girl's grandmother had cursed him so that he remains alive after dying, but in a zombie-like state with all of post-death symptoms. So while he goes to find the grandmother to have the curse removed, the con man puts up with liver spots, loss of muscle control, loss of bladder control, rigor mortis, and flesh decomposition. When he reaches the grandmother's house, she catches him in a bear trap and reveals that she did all of it for revenge as her granddaughter committed suicide out of grief while pregnant. The story wraps up with the grandmother (and the rest of the family) [[ShotgunWedding forcing the con man to marry the girl,]] who is now a zombie herself.
* The title character from [[FrancoBelgianComics French comic book series]] ''[[http://bd-girls.mon-oueb.com/belles/soeur_marie_therese_des_batignolles/index.phtml Soeur Marie-Thérèse des Batignolles]]''.
* The title character's grandmother in ''ComicBook/{{Bamse}}''. She normally only stands in the sidelines, cooking up the thing that makes Bamse strong... but when he's otherwise incapacitated, she enters the fray herself. Awesomeness ''always'' ensues.
* From ''ComicBook/LuckyLuke'', Ma Dalton can certainly be scarier than her four desperado sons. She was a fearsome bandit herself and still carries a loaded gun in her handbag. Luke even says after his duel that it was the ''only'' time he was ever afraid.
* ''ComicBook/{{Fables}}'': Frau Totenkinder is a kindly old lady, always knitting and smiling. She's also one of the oldest and mightiest witches on earth, and has been ''sacrificing babies to grow her power'' since the Stone Age.
* In ''ComicBook/{{Promethea}}'', the protagonist's predecessor is somewhere between failing at this trope and failing at averting it. She never wanted to be a hero in the first place.
* ''ComicBook/{{WITCH}}'':
** Yan Lin is the grandmother of one of the current Guardians, a former Guardian herself, and tough enough to survive practicing Free Climbing in the void. Plus ''someone'' had to teach Hay Lin how to kick out a Capoeira practitioner much bigger than herself, and her parents don't look exactly like martial artists...
** Nerissa not only used to be a Guardian alongside Yan Lin before [[FallenHero going crazy]], but her getting free caused an immediate OhCrap in Kandrakar. ''Then'' she stole a copy of the Guardians' power and became really dangerous.
** Kadma, having been a Guardian alongside Nerissa and Yan Lin, is implied to be one, but never showed it.
* The old Italian comic ''Soldino'' had the titular character's grandmother Abelarda, a CoolOldLady whose favorite hobbies are [[SupremeChef baking cakes]], knitting and [[BreadMilkEggsSquick beating up criminals]].
* The late Agatha Harkness, who in her lifetime was the nanny of [[ComicBook/FantasticFour Franklin Richards]], with everything that came with taking care of the child of superheroes. It helped that she was a witch.
* Fruit Bat, a 104-year-old former vigilante introduced in the first issue of ''ComicBook/BatgirlRebirth'', quite easily kicks the ass of a considerably younger attacker.
* ''ComicBook/StrontiumDog'': Middenface [=MacNulty=] is a [[ViolentGlaswegian Glaswegian hard-man]], former rebel and bounty hunter who has been on the run from the law since he was fourteen and is more than capable of taking down everything from {{Eldritch Abomination}}s to petty crooks with small arms and the occasional GlasgowKiss. The only thing Middenface is afraid of is his tiny Glaswegian grandmother.
* ''ComicBook/TheTransformersRobotsInDisguise:'' Arcee, who is established in her introduction to have been cruising around the universe for a good four million years looking for [[MadScientist Jhiaxus]] so she could get some payback, making her older than pretty much all the cast by default. Later revelations reveal she's actually upward of ''twelve million'' years old, and she's been killing things pretty much all that time.
* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'' [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1942 Vol 1]]: The elderly Holliday College Dean (called [[ScaryLibrarian Picklepuss]] and [[DeanBitterman Sourpuss]] by the girls) is very protective of her girls. Not only does she know when to flee and ask for help, something the Holliday Girls are terrible at, she is also a capable enough fighter to surprise and get the better of superpowered foes.
* The ''ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse'' has its fair share of extremely tough old ladies:
** Grandma Duck is the only person in the entire world capable of making Scrooge back down with no effort whatsoever, and this should be warning enough to not mess with her. The men who tried to force her to sell her farm didn't know that and threatened her... And had to run when she ''fired her shotgun right over their heads'' and flat-out told them the next shot would be at chest height. [[spoiler:She's also one of the few people who knows Donald is the sadistic vigilante known as Paperinik the Devilish Avenger, and has absolutely no trouble calling him in if she can't just shoot whoever's trying to mess with her farm]].
** "Glittering" Goldie O'Gilt, Scrooge's main love interest, made him fall for her by being one of two women as tough as him, and old age didn't soften her one bit. The Beagle Boys found out the hard way when she barged on them with her own shotgun.
** Brigitta [=McBridge=], Scrooge's other meaningful love interest, [[YoungerThanTheyLook doesn't look she's the same age as Scrooge]] and seems just a lovestuck woman... Who [[InexplicablyAwesome for no apparent reason has either enough money to casually build a factory and a sub or the credit to borrow that kind of money]] and the only one of Scrooge's business rivals who actually ''scares'' him, as he has learned the hard way that [[BrilliantButLazy while she usually can't be bothered to try her business sense is a match for his]] and [[WomanScorned if he angers her]] she'll have absolutely no qualms doing anything ''legal'' just to mess with him.
** Caraldina De Spell, Magica's grandmother, appears just as a quirky and overbearing old woman who'd want her granddaughter to just settle down and get married, and has even picked a potential husband for her. She's also a powerful and experienced witch, and that time she had been accidentally brainwashed into loving Scrooge she casually ''slammed Magica with a sack of coins as tall as herself''.
* In ''ComicBook/ZiggyPigSillySealComics'', Ziggy's mother practices boxing at [[ComicBook/{{Daredevil}} Fogwell's Gym]] against a burly boxer twice her height. She knocks him out with a single right hook.
* ''ComicBook/OnceAndFuture'': Bridgette is an octogenarian who feels her age, but she's also the best monster hunter in Britain with decades of experience fighting stories. She never leaves home without a weapon and knows Arthurian lore inside and out, making her a force to be reckoned with even if her grandson is far better-suited to the monster-hunting business now.

* Azrael at [[http://gaijinchronicles.com/ Gaijin Chronicles]] blogged frequently about the terror that is the obaasan (Japanese grandmother). School policies tended to be made with deference to them, and discipline couldn't be carried out for fear of facing their wrath; the obaasan were feared as much as yakuza parents. Az also describes a field trip in which he was driven from half-way up Mount Fuji by a typhoon, and on retreat was ''passed up'' by a group of marching obaasan who had already been to the top.

%%* Penny Halliwell (Grams) from ''Series/{{Charmed|1998}}''.

%%* ''Series/{{V 1983}}'': The old Jewish lady in a wheelchair... with an [[CoolGuns Ingram MAC-10]] under her blanket.

* ''VideoGame/SleepingDogs'': Mrs. Chu, Winston's mother, is about the only thing the Water Street Boys are afraid of, and she isn't afraid to take gruesome action against those who mess with her little boy (who is the leader of the Water Street Boys). The protagonist even advocates handing over a particularly slimy adversary to Mrs. Chu on the grounds that "If we [kill him], it'll be quick."

* The ''WesternAnimation/PinkPanther'' episode "Pink Pistons" had the Pink Panther blow past an old woman at an intersection with his new sports car. Turns out that old lady was Granny Flash, senior citizens drag race champion. She proceeds to blow the doors off the Pink Panther.

* Scott Westerfeld's ''Literature/{{Midnighters}}'' trilogy features Madeleine, the elderly mindcaster who [[spoiler:sold out her fellow midnighters for popularity]], then hid in a crepuscular contortion for decades to stay away from the darklings and ''create a whole new generation of midnighters'' to back up natural-born Seer Rex. By manipulating the vulnerable minds of women in labour. And that's when she had relatively good intentions. [[MindRape You don't want to know what Madeleine will do to you if you get on her bad side]]. And let's not forget [[spoiler: When The Big Bad of the final season's minions comes to kill Jessie, Madeleine, and her grandson she makes Jessie take her grandson and run while she makes a distraction by lighting up a cigarette which she had given up to be a good influence on her grandson. And sitting on plastic explosives.]]
-->'''Madeline:''' This ones for my boys.

* Maddie "MamaBear" Westen in ''Series/BurnNotice''. She manages to successfully interrogate a terrorist into near-pants-wetting fear when Sam and Fi couldn't break him, hides weaponry in her house, and [[spoiler: successfully stalls and distracts a pair of government agents in order to help Michael escape, fully aware that they'll arrest her once they inevitably figure out she's protecting him.]] When the normal standard of badass is made by ex-spies and bounty hunters and you're still considered badass, you deserve to be on this page.

* Sabor in ''{{WesternAnimation/Tarzan}}''. Leopards live for seventeen years on average, with the record holder dying at twenty-four years old. So considering the fact that Sabor was already an adult when Tarzan was a baby and Tarzan appeared to be in his early twenties when he fought her, Sabor was ''very'' elderly for a leopard and still nearly defeated both Tarzan and Kerchak.

-->''Stand back Franchise/{{Superman}}, Iceman, Franchise/SpiderMan. Franchise/{{Batman}} and Robin too.\\

* Edith Bunker from ''Series/AllInTheFamily''. One episode in particular: alone at home, she is about to be raped when smoke starts coming out of her kitchen. She gets away from the rapist to go take her baking out of the oven... and shoves the burning hot cake into the would-be rapists face (and the audience goes absolutely wild cheering her).

* ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'': In [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQ4XxCuF33M "Exorcism"]], a teenage girl is [[DemonicPossession possessed by a demon]] who makes short work of the priest trying to cast it out. However, the creature is no match for Mrs. Shaw, the elderly SassyBlackWoman who lives one floor above and is determined to get a good night's sleep. Mrs. Shaw [[NoSell effortlessly shuts down the demon's powers]] and exorcises it in a matter of minutes, explaining that she works as a crossing guard at an elementary school for forty years and thus has no fear whatsoever ("Every day I am the only thing stopping 300 mean fifth-graders from gettin' sent straight to Hell by a UPS truck").