Line #86 Main/BalkanBastard


1	%%
2	%% The examples have been alphabetized. Please put any new example in its proper place in the folder rather
3	%% than at the end.
4	%%
5	%%
6	->''"Even the most sophisticated plan needs soldiers, and what's better than two Serbs?"''
7	-->-- '''Tokyo''' on '''Oslo and Helsinki''', ''Series/MoneyHeist''
8
9	In fiction, people from [[{{Ruritania}} Southeastern Europe]], such as Albania, Bulgaria, Romania and the ex-Yugoslav countries, tend to be bloodthirsty gangsters, mercenaries, and/or [[SociopathicSoldier war criminals]]. If they aren't any of those things, they'll be [[SavageSouth uncouth]], rude, [[DirtyForeigner slovenly]], thieving and/or [[SmallTownTyrant corrupt]]. They'll be absolutely ruthless, pick fights with anyone who looks at them funny, revel in chaos, and have no qualms about massacring innocent civilians. While Greece is also a part of the region, the Greeks are usually the exception to this stereotype, despite their long history of warfare.
10
11	Today, this stereotype stems from UsefulNotes/TheYugoslavWars, and the atrocities and war crimes committed by the factions involved in those conflicts. Before that, though, Yugoslavia was known as the place where UsefulNotes/WorldWarI started, when Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated by a Serb revolutionary in Sarajevo, and in previous centuries, "Balkan banditry" was something of a trope; notably, in the days of the UsefulNotes/OttomanEmpire, Balkan ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hajduk hajduci]]'' were peasant outlaws who were [[YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters either bandits or freedom fighters, depending who you asked]]. The mountains of the region ''were'' plenty rugged enough to shelter a BanditClan or two. Even today, the Balkans remains a powder keg of ethnic tensions, with the issue of UsefulNotes/{{Kosovo}} still being an ongoing sore spot of the region. That part of the world doesn't have the luckiest history.
12
13	Compare to RambunctiousItalian, which is another hot-blooded Southern European stereotype that is sometimes also associated with organized crime, RenegadeRussian, for a similar Slavic villain archetype from a former communist country, and SpicyLatina, which is a similar Latin American stereotype. Balkan Bastards are often an element of a GenericEthnicCrimeGang or TheMafia or are among a story's RuthlessForeignGangsters.
14
15	----
16	!!Examples:
17
18	[[foldercontrol]]
19
20	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
21	* ''Manga/AssassinationClassroom'': Irina Jelavic, a South Slavic [[ProfessionalKiller professional assassin]] and Class 3-E's foreign language teacher, is a rather benign example (she's not evil, just somewhat bitchy and temperamental) whose career began when she was orphaned and traumatized during the Yugoslav Wars.
22	* ''Anime/BlackLagoon'': "Hansel and Gretel", the "Vampire Twins", are a pair of ambiguously-aged ([[EnfantTerrible early-teen, at their oldest]]) mercenaries that are horrifying psychopaths who torture and kill for fun, even killing their employer when he doesn't lets them "play". Their backstory involves them being orphans of the Ceaușescu regime who were driven crazy by being forced to work in [[SnuffFilm snuff films]].
23	* Downplayed in ''Manga/HikariNoDensetsu''. Main character Hikari has a ForeignCultureFetish for Bulgaria (because her idol and inspiration to be a rhythmatic gymnast, Diliana Georgieva, is from there) and moves to the country to hone her Olympian skills. There, she makes a rival in Elena Berakova, who's nothing short of mean and aggressive to her.
24	* ''Manga/{{Jormungand}}'' has its "Dragon Shooter" arc set in a thinly disguised Serbia known as Republic T, with the Kokos attempting to muscle in on the arms market of a local war criminal.
25	[[/folder]]
26
27	[[folder:Comic Books]]
28	* Played with in ''ComicBook/The99'', where Serbian ex-soldier Zoran is initially mistaken for TheDragon because his metal prosthetic arm and leg make him look monstrous, but he turns out to be working for the good guys.
29	* In "The Slavers" arc of ''ComicBook/ThePunisherMAX'', Frank Castle faces off against a Balkan sex trafficking ring composed of hardened soldiers/war criminals from the Yugoslav Wars. Their horrible treatment of their victims instills a white-hot hatred within Castle that leads to one of Frank's deadliest moments of [[PayEvilUntoEvil paying evil unto evil]].
30	[[/folder]]
31
32	[[folder:Fan Works]]
33	* ''Fanfic/DespairIsland'' has Zolkoff, a Serbian mafia thug and Chris's main helper who enjoys brutally killing and taunting his victims.
34	* ''[[FanFic/TheConversionBureau The Conversion Bureau: The Palladium Wings]]'' has a rare Greek example in Nikolaos Drakonakos, the [[RedBaron Dragon of the Skies]]. He's vicious SkyPirate captain with a [[ItsPersonal blood feud]] against Princess Celestia. In line with this trope, the narration describes him as "a Maniot Greek, piracy and bloodshed is in his blood". In addition, the majority of crew of his ship also appear to be of Balkan descent.
35	[[/folder]]
36
37	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
38	* ''Film/BehindEnemyLines'' is set in Bosnia during the Yugoslav Wars, and has a Serb force hunting down the protagonist for inadvertently photographing mass graves during a recon mission.
39	* ''Film/{{Defendor}}'': The main villain (whom the titular mentally-challenged VigilanteMan believes is his archnemisis "Captain Industry") is Radovan Kristic, a Serbian crimelord involved with drugs and prostitution.
40	* In the 2008 ''Film/GetSmart'' movie, part of the plot revolves around Max and Agent 99 following Kristic, a Bosnian national, and one of [=CHAOS'=] top operatives, to Russia where he is running a secret nuclear weapons factory.
41	* ''Film/ISpitOnYourGrave'': The second movie has a girl wind up in Bulgaria and fall victim to two rapist brothers and their mother. Her reaction to finding out she's in the country is a BigNo.
42	* ''Film/InOrderOfDisappearance'' has a Serbian crime syndicate in Norway, who get into a mob war with the local Norwegian crime organization when the son of the former's boss is assassinated.
43	* ''Film/LayerCake'' has the Serbian mafia, who are former war criminals and have an operation so vast that when one of their deals goes bad, their only real concern is killing everyone responsible as a "[[MakeAnExampleOfThem never fuck with us]]" message rather than recovering their merchandise.
44	* Disney's version of ''Film/MightyJoeYoung'' has Andrei Strasser and Garth, both of whom are reckless poachers who speak with what seems to be a shared Southern European accent (even Strasser uttered a single Romanian word a few times), despite the fact that neither of their confirmed nationalities were explicitly stated (though, Strasser's portayer Creator/RadeSerbedzija is Croatian). '''However''', this trope has been ''a lot'' more present in Strasser himself, who shows [[BeyondRedemption no signs of genuine remorse]] if his reckless actions would significantly affect others (at least his ex-assistant Garth has [[EvenEvilHasStandards some moral standards]], which were shown from time to time throughout his appearance).
45	* The French action movie ''Film/TheNest'' is about a multinational special forces team besieged inside a warehouse by Albanian mafia thugs.
46	* ''Film/NoMansLand'' has the Serbs deliberately lay down the protagonist, a Bosnian Muslim, on an anti-personnel mine.
47	* ''Film/{{Pusher}}'' has a ruthless Serbian drug lord in Denmark named Milo. Milo himself runs afoul of even more ruthless Albanians in the third movie.
48	* ''Film/ASerbianFilm'', which features extreme TorturePorn, has been described by its director Srđan Spasojević, as an allegory for the corrupt, post-Cold War government of Serbia.
49	* ''Film/{{Taken}}'' features an Albanian crime organization as the main antagonists, who run a sex trafficking operation and who kidnap the protagonist's daughter.
50	[[/folder]]
51
52	[[folder:Literature]]
53	* ''Literature/BaiGanyo'': The titular character, Ganyo ''Balkanski'', is specifically a satire of the Balkan stereotype of being uncouth, scummy and an all-around jerk, especially compared to Westerners. While travelling around Western Europe (and Tsarist Russia), Bai Ganyo is a mostly harmless, if sleazy, Funny Foreigner. Back in Bulgaria, he quickly rises in society and becomes a power-hungry CorruptPolitician.
54	* Creator/BramStoker’s ''Literature/{{Dracula}}'' can be considered an UrExample of sorts of this trope. Dracula is from broadly the right part of the world, and is a deadly killer who travels west to carry out his evil schemes. And if he is correctly identified with the historical UsefulNotes/VladTheImpaler, his ruthless personality was shaped by the brutal wars of that region...
55	* ''Literature/EncryptionStraffe'': Set in a fictional city-state in post-war Balkans, three of the protagonist Genie's employer and commanders fought in UsefulNotes/TheYugoslavWars: Dr. Prishtina, Captain Walther Volk and Major Bishop. Though, it's not specified on whose side. Volk is actually German while the other two are Croatian. Many of Genie's teammates are from a younger generation of the region, such as Rich, Vucko and Kekes.
56	* ''Literature/HarryPotter'': The fourth book introduces the Bulgarian national quidditch team. The beaters in particular, Vulchanov and Volkov, are portrayed as rude and thuggish, yelling and swinging their bats at the referee at the slightest provocation and later even hitting players with them. One of the chasers, Dimitrov, also plays dirty, trying to knock an Irish player off her broom. WordOfGod states that Rowling based those characters on the Bulgarian football team when they made it to the 1994 World Cup 1/4 finals, who were then infamous for such behaviors.
57	[[/folder]]
58
59	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
60	* ''Series/TwentyFour'' has a Serbian war criminal named Viktor Drazen, who Jack Bauer and his squad killed the wife and daughter of two years before the events of the first season.
61	* ''Series/{{Bones}}'':
62	** Brennan and Booth discover that a murdered girl had come from South Central Europe, and when they track down the place where she had been staying, they discover a den filled with [[SexSlave sex slaves]] who were smuggled in from Eastern Europe and the Balkan region. They soon arrest her pimp, an Albanian human trafficker.
63	** Mark Kovac,the main villain of season 12, is the son of a Balkan warlord who Booth killed as a sniper. Kovac seeks revenge by torturing people to find Booth, attacking Brennan’s dad and kids at a safe house, which kills Brennan’s dad, and blowing up the lab.
64	* In the ''Series/{{Community}}'' episode "Custody Law and Eastern European Diplomacy", Troy and Abed's Balkan friend Lukka turns out to have been involved in genocidal cleansing back in his home country.
65	* In ''Series/Daredevil2015'', there are various gangs and crime groups divided by ethnicity. One of these groups are the Albanians. Matt Murdock, when he's assaulted by [[DirtyCop Dirty Cops]] during a visit to a client, makes a deal with their leader to help him escape the prison by invoking an EnemyMine against Fisk.
66	* PlayedForLaughs in ''Series/KeyAndPeele'': the dueling Albanian and Macedonian cafe owners are clearly ''trying'' to be good and responsive business owners, but their age-old ethnic animus, locations right across the street from one another, and tendency to be confused for the other has become a BerserkButton for both of them. The waitstaff for both are much more placid, however.
67	* ''Series/LawAndOrder'':
68	** In "Enemy", a stash-house massacre leads Fontana and Green to a heroin ring that includes an old Albanian gangster.
69	** In "Securitate", a Romanian secret police torturer turned gangster is killed by his son, who's never been enough of a bastard to gain the old man's approval.
70	** In "Angelgrove", one of the initial suspects in the murder of a controversial filmmaker is an Albanian gangster (played by the same actor who played the Albanian gangster in "Enemy", in fact).
71	** In "Kingmaker", the murder of an undercover police officer by the Albanian mob kicks off an investigation into a rising politician.
72	* ''Series/LawAndOrderCriminalIntent'' has delved into this trope a few times:
73	** In "Homo Homini Lupis", a criminal is hired to kidnap the family of corporate executive who's been embezzling money. [[EvenEvilHasStandards Much to the loan shark's horror]], the kidnapper turns out to be a former member of the Serb Volunteer Guard who [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil repeatedly rapes]] the embezzler's daughter.
74	** In "Blasters", an investigation into the death of a FormerChildStar leads Logan and Wheeler into a bootleg DVD ring run by the Albanian Mob.
75	* The pilot episode of ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'' involves the SVU investigating the murder and mutilation of a Serbian war criminal who had fled to the US and started a new life as a taxi driver.
76	* ''Series/MoneyHeist'': Tokyo comments on the stereotype of brutal Balkans when introducing the audience to the cast, since the CaperCrew's muscle are two Serbian ex-soldiers, cousins nicknamed Oslo and Helsinki. A subversion, since while we don't get to know Oslo very much, Helsinki is quite affable and cares for his friends and family despite being a criminal.
77	* ''Series/NewTricks'' has [[spoiler:a Serbian war criminal hiding as a monk in an addiction clinic, and killing a man who recognized him]].
78	* ''Series/Numb3rs'' has a Serbian war criminal, Slobodan Radovic (Creator/MichaelKhmurov), who [[spoiler: not only stabs Don but he is also wanted for war crimes due to ethnic cleansing]], which is why [[spoiler:he was being targeted by four armed robbers, who survived him wiping out their Croatian village]].
79	* ''Series/SEALTeam'' has Bravo Team going to capture a Serbian arms dealer who has been linked to multiple bombings targeting U.S. military personnel in the premier of it's third season, and has a scene of Bosnian Serb forces executing Bosniak civilians in "Ghost of Christmas Future".
80	* ''Series/SleeperCell'' has a Bosnian terrorist in its first season.
81	* ''[[Series/Undercover2011 Pod Prikritie]]'' is centered around Bulgarian crime groups, which are this by default, but later an Albanian gang is introduced as even more violent. Even Ivo Andonov, one of the most ruthless mob bosses, has had it with Balkan petty brutality and wants to work with more "civilized" gangsters, like Italians.
82	--> '''Ivo''': I've had it with those Macedonian, Serbian, Greek, Turkish dumbasses!
83	[[/folder]]
84
85	[[folder:Video Games]]
86	* The main protagonist of ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV'' is Niko Bellic, a Serbian illegal immigrant and hired gun who fought in the Yugoslav Wars, along with his cousin Roman. Roman, however, is more [[FunnyForeigner boorish]] and sleazy (specifically addicted to food, gambling and "beeg American titties") than truly threatening and is ultimately a decent person, but more often than not needs Niko to help him out of his jams. The game also features the [[GenericEthnicCrimeGang Albanian Mob]] as minor antagonists, with a trio of Albanian {{Loan Shark}}s acting as {{Starter Villain}}s.
87	* ''VideoGame/AHatInTime'' has a comedic example in the Mafia of Cooks, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin a criminal organization of chefs]] who speak in Slavic accents, live in a Mediterranean-like city, and enjoy punching things, especially old ladies.
88	* ''VideoGame/NeedForSpeedPayback'' has Mitko Vasilev, a snotty, unscrupulous Bulgarian [[AssInAmbassador diplomat]] with connections to a local criminal syndicate, a love of [[NonIdleRich illegal drag racing]] and absolutely no regard for anything or anyone that gets in the way of his reckless {{Thrill Seek\|er}}ing.
89	* Dragan from ''VideoGame/PAYDAY2'' is a corrupt Croatian Interpol agent who works with the Payday Gang.
90	* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil6'' has the J'avo, C-Virus infectees whose name is Serbian for devil, speak Serbo-Croatian, have no problem killing civilians or taking them hostage and are the main combat force of Neo-Umbrella. The game also has a rare heroic example in Jake Muller, a BloodKnight mercenary from a fictional Serbo-Croatian speaking country known as Edonia who has the antibodies for the C-Virus in his blood due to being [[spoiler:Albert Wesker's son]].
91	* ''VideoGame/{{RUINER}}'': Cpt. Bogdan, one of the game's [[{{Miniboss}} bounty targets]], is a Romanian mercenary and war criminal wanted for the mass execution of civilians during an unspecified Balkan war TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture. He’s not only completely unrepentant of his actions when confronted, but earnestly believes himself to be a “war hero” for them.
92	* ''VideoGame/SniperGhostWarrior2'' has Merinov, a powerful Serbian weapons dealer, conspirator and one of the most personal enemies of the protagonist Cole Anderson, and a genocidal leader of the Serbian military, Marko Vladic.
93	* ''[[VideoGame/SOCOMUSNavySeals SOCOM II: U.S. Navy [=SEALs=]]]'' has the Sesseri, an Albanian black market syndicate.
94	* ''VideoGame/SplinterCellChaosTheory'' has Milos Nowak, AKA Milan Nedich, a suspected war criminal from the Bosnian conflict known as the Barber of Bosnia, who allegedly scalped some of his prisoners. He's one of the only mandatory kills in the game, and killing him does not effect your mission statistics.
95	* ''VideoGame/SWAT4'': The Stetchkov Syndicate, the {{Arc Villain}}s of the eponymous DLC expansion, are a Bulgarian organized crime group who traffick in drugs, illegal goods and, by the time of the game, have escalated to {{Arms Deal\|er}}ing and all-out [[MobWar gang warfare]].
96	* ''VideoGame/Uncharted2AmongThieves'' has its BigBad Zoran Lazarević, an infamous Serbian war criminal, and his mercenary company.
97	[[/folder]]
98
99	[[folder:Web Original]]
100	* Implied by the author of [[https://www.cracked.com/personal-experiences-2022-6-awful-things-i-learned-surviving-genocide.html this article]] who interviewed several survivors of the UsefulNotes/TheYugoslavWars. In it, he describes the Balkans as "historically Europe's 'bad neighborhood,' filled with ethnic groups who've been killing each other since the days of Rome".
101	[[/folder]]
102
103

Context Main / BalkanBastard