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"Beware the fury of a patient man."
"When kind men grow angry, things are about to change." — Harry Dresden, ''Blood Rites''
"I had no idea this Kofi Kingston existed, and I've been in the ring with Kofi!"
—Matt Striker, Monday Night Raw
Sometimes, trying to Break The Cutie can have consequences. Sometimes, the nicest person in the story gets pushed to the limit of what they can take and the results... are not pretty.
The sweeter, gentler, more polite, and overall nicer a character is, especially if they're female, the worse it will be for the planet when they're subjected to one too many rounds of Break The Cutie, or Dude Wheres My Respect, Rant Inducing Slight, or hitting their Berserk Button. What was once a sweet and nice individual suddenly snaps and becomes something far worse then the Big Bad could have expected.
It's called Unstoppable Rage for a reason, you know.
Things get even worse if they're a Technical Pacifist, and worse still if they're an Actual Pacifist, since outright villains will only kill you. If a sweet, gentle soul snaps, all you can do is pray for a quick death.
This is also why pushing the Gentle Giant too far is generally a bad idea, and why Teaching Him Anger is a suicidal idea.
See also Good Is Not Nice, where one condition is when a normally nice character realizes that nice will not get things done in a situation. They can coincide, if the realization and the outrage are triggered at the same time. The results are quite similar if they Madden Into Misanthropy, the difference being the new misanthrope isn't so much a violent dynamo as a care free Jerk Ass.
Lets Get Dangerous, Crouching Moron Hidden Badass, Minored In Ass Kicking, The So Called Coward, and Who's Laughing Now can be seen as subtropes of this. A This Means War! declaration may be delivered as a result of it. The polar opposite of I Feel Angry. See also: Yandere, Yangire, Mama Bear, Killer Rabbit, and Action Santa. While Mike Nelson may be a destroyer of worlds in his own right, he's not a woobie...we think.
Examples:
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Manga & Anime
Elenore Baker from " Madlax" Go ahead...touch Margaret...Just ask Maurice Lopez
Comic Books
- Subverted at least twice in Superman comics (perhaps to be expected, featuring as it does the ultimate Nice Guy):
- An issue of Superman entitled 'What's So Funny About Truth, Justice and the American Way?' sees Superman challenged by a Darker And Edgier superteam who aren't afraid to kill and maim their enemies, and deride Superman as a moral weakling who's past it and afraid to deal with issues 'properly'. Eventually, challenging Superman to a fight, they pound and pound and seamingly break him — but, in a completely unstoppable explosion of pure superhuman rage, he seemingly destroys and kills each one of them, and uses his X-ray vision to completely destroy the tumor in the head of his opponent that was giving him his powers. However, it's revealed that Superman was still holding back. Each member of the 'dark' team is alive and well (if somewhat battered) and the leader's powers still remain, and he has merely given them "a psychic concussion" — because, as he explains to the leader, he wanted to give them a sense of what it felt to be powerless under such unstoppable brutality (namely, the feeling their victims had and a sense of what it would be like if he was actually like that). It wouldn't be pretty.
- A sequel to this story sees the leader of this team, in an attempt to yet again break Superman, apparently kill Lois Lane, and the issue follows an enraged Superman beating the leader to a pulp before killing him. However, in yet another subversion, it's revealed that this was just a momentary fantasy, and Superman, although enraged and grief-stricken, merely intends to arrest the leader and then mourn his wife. Astonished, the leader asks him why — and Superman merely replies that neither beating nor killing him would bring Lois back, and would in fact shame her memory. Broken when he realizes that Superman is the genuine article, the leader reveals that Lois' death was merely an illusion.
- In an actual example, there's the Superman story "For the Man Who Has Everything
 ", in which Mongul traps Superman in a Lotus Eater Dream of a Krypton that never blew up by means of an evil plant called the Black Mercy. The dream gradually turns into a nightmare as the Justice League battles Mongul, and when Batman finally frees him from the plant, Superman proceeds to unleash his rage in full upon Mongul, including one memorable scene in which he blasts the tyrant with his heat-vision: "BURN." This was later made into an episode of Justice League, which follows the same exact formula (including "BURN.").
- Probably the best Superman example was the famous "Death of Superman" arc. Losing to a monster that took out the entire Justice League with one hand tied behing its back, he comes to a grim decision. "To stop him I'll have to be as ruthless as he is." To which Lois replied with "But he wants to kill, and you CAN'T" also qualifies as a Last Stand, as he truly intended it to be a fight to the finish that would claim the lives of both combatants.
- Then there's Alan Moore 's Silver Age Superman swan song, 'Whatever Happened To The Man Of Tomorrow'. The alt-future adult Legion Of Super-Villains joins the attack on the historically-doomed Man Of Steel killing the empowered Jimmy and Lana as they go. When Cosmic King taunts him to toss them Lois, so that so that they can kill her like his 'other girlfriend' his eyes burn red—the heat vision is a mirror of the pure rage on his face. He burns Lightning Lord's arm, and then, Saturn Queen reveals via telepathy that he's not kidding, and means to kill them all. Their locked-in victory no longer certain, they beat a very hasty retreat to the future.
- http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7czid_superman-true-power_shortfilms
- In the second issue of John Byrne's Alpha Flight, the 'til now sweet and innocent Marrina figures out she's an alien. Another of her teammates is still in hospital three issues later...
- In issue 42 of Marvel's "What If?" comic, we see an alternate universe where Susan Richards perishes in childbirth due to actions by the villain Annihilus. Driven mad with grief, Reed Richards turns his considerable mental chops from creating gadgets to getting the most violent, terrible revenge he can. He proves to be a far deadlier unhinged genius than Doom ever was, and even causes Namor to tell him to calm the heck down. This being an out-of-continuity tale, it doesn't work.
- Reed isn't exactly a nice guy. Sure, the lesser of two evils but still far from nice.
- Reed is or is not nice Depending On The Writer. As with many other characters who've existed for decades and gone through multiple creative teams. In the What If story referenced, he was definitely portrayed as a nice, decent man up to the point of Sue's death.
- Another from The DCU: Plastic Man. Although he's normally the team clown, he can get... testy, if pushed. In "The Obsidian Age", he helps the team recover from the psychological effects of time-travel with bad jokes. Then, when Rama Khan sets the Martian Manhunter on fire, Plastic Man uses his own ductile body to choke the dude into unconsciousness ("You like burning? How about the burning on the inside on your lungs right now, like that?") and subsequent brain-damage.
- Not to mention the fact that he went toe-to-toe with Fernus The Burning after the baddie in question had already curb-stomped the entire Justice League. Yeah, it was due largely to the fact he was the only member of the team who was immune to Fernus' telepathy, but seeing the Plucky Comic Relief putting the guy who just bitch smacked Superman in a headlock still sends shivers down my spine.
- In the House of M version of New X-Men: Academy X, Laurie Collins (in the original series, something of a Woobie) uses her power to make Quentin Quire commit suicide and then tries to make the opposing squads of New Mutants (her own squad) and Hellions kill each other. It turns out she is The Mole from SHIELD.
- Colossus from the X-Men is normally the team's Gentle Giant, except for when Nightcrawler and Shadowcat are gravely injured by Riptide and Harpoon during the Mutant Massacre. On a single page, Colossus snaps Riptide's neck and swears to do the same to Harpoon.
- Or in Days of future past when Wolverine and Storm are killed. One panel focuses on Colossus' grief-striken face. The next panel shows us a sentinel getting thrown through a skyscraper.
- Spider Man. Oh sure, he's a little hot-headed and reckless at times, but for the most part he's a good guy. He's also one of the few superheroes who makes a rule of not killing and manages to be cool in spite (or even because) of it. But if you mess with him, and I mean really mess with him...well let's just say if Norman Osborn's glider hadn't made a Goblin Kabab out of him when he killed Gwen Stacy, Spidey's arm would have.
- And he became downright scary in Back In Black. I doubt Kingpin will ever mess with him again (Oh wait, that didn't happen now). And let's not forget the whole "throwing a Jeep through a wall at the sniper" thing.
- And then there's the What If?: Back In Black issue. He beats the crap out of Iron Man (Multiple times) and murders Kingpin.
- At one point in the continuity-that-no-longer-exists, a sleazy tabloid photographer makes the completely untrue claim that Mary Jane's been having an affair with Tony Stark. Logan makes the stupid mistake of cracking sarcastic about MJ just after Peter's heard about the article. We get one panel of Peter looking extremely pissed, then the next panel, Luke Cage and Jessica Drew are looking at the hole in the supposedly unbreakable glass where he just pitched Wolverine through the plate window. Several stories up.
- At one point, a future version of Iron Man from 2025 comes back in time to get the biometric signature of a child who would grow to be a terrorist in the future (he needed it to defuse a bomb). Spider-Man, not knowing what's going on, interferes. Rather than explain the situation, Iron Man fights Spider-Man and ruthlessly injures the child in the process (which incidentally is the reason he grows up to hold a grudge against Stark Industries). Since Iron Man is supposed to be a hero, Spider-Man flips out. He beats the future-tech Iron Man to a pulp with his bare fists in a no-contest ass-whupping.
- Peter David's famous "Death of Jean DeWolff" storyline shows what happens when Spider-Man gets pushed too far, and it's not pretty. The story centred around the murder of one of Spidey's few friends on the NYPD by the psychotic "Sin-Eater", who went on to kill a priest who opposed capital punishment, a judge who "coddled criminals", and an innocent bystander who got clipped when Spidey dodged a shotgun blast. At the same time, an elderly gentleman from Aunt May's boarding house is viciously mugged by three punks, whom Matt Murdock manages to get bail for. Spidey is shown getting angrier and more aggressive towards criminals as he tries to track down Sin-Eater, even putting a drug dealer in fear of his life by taking him to a bar and making out that they're buddies, in order to get some info (the guy later goes into Witness Protection), earning him a What The Hell Hero from Daredevil. It comes to a head as Spidey and Daredevil discover that The Sin Eater is actually Stan Carter, the detective in charge of the Sin-Eater case, whom Spidey had being developing a friendship with, and that he has gone to J. Jonah Jameson's penthouse to kill Jameson (JJJ's out of town, but his wife Marla is there, along with Betty Brant-Leeds, one of Peter Parker's oldest friends and former girlfriend). Sin-Eater is about to kill Betty when Spidey bursts in, snaps his shotgun over his knee like a twig, and smacks him around, causing Carter to snap back to sanity for a moment and try to apologise, which pisses Spidey off even more, as he continues to viciously pound Carter, even after he's unconscious. Daredevil tries to intervene before Spider-Man kills the guy and gets punched out of a window for his efforts, and then barely defeats the raging, out-of-control Spider-Man. Later, as the cops try to get Carter into a wagon to Ryker's, they're swarmed by an angry mob looking for some vigilante justice. Daredevil jumps in to stop them, whilst Spidey stays where he is and watches, until Daredevil calls out to him by his first name, and snaps him back to his senses. Peter David brought Carter back in a later storyline - partially deaf, with a stutter and a limp as a direct result of what Spider-Man did to him.
- There was a story from the 80s in which Firelord, a former herald of Galactus for crying out loud, makes Spidey so angry that he is able to fight him to a standstill. (Then again, that story is...questionable.)
- Quick tip for villains - if Spider-Man is fighting you, make sure he's joking around. If he isn't, then congratulations — you've succeeded in really pissing him off. You will now get your ass handed to you. Very painfully.
- Mrs. Jean Grey, also of the X-Men. Despite that she has an occasional temper and she is most known for her tragic sacrifice in the Dark Phoenix Saga, she is mostly a very compassionate and loving woman who cares for just about everyone around her. Mostly is the key word here as when she found out that Rich Bitch Emma Frost had a telepathic affair with her husband Scott, she broke into Emma's mind and humiliated her severely. Also, when a team of mutant organ harvesters known as the U-Men attacked the X-Mansion, she used her powers to make them vomit and defecate in their suits before she tore them off and made them flee.
- Let's not forget Squirrel Girl. Sweet disposition, friendly, a noticeable lack of Angst and apparently the loser in the Superpower Lottery. She's taken down a wide swath of A-list villains.
- Clearbrook in Elf Quest is usually the calmest, most rational elf you could hope to meet, but after her lifemate One-Eye is killed by trolls she briefly becomes a trollicidal berserker during the subsequent elf-troll war. Definitely not played for laughs, as the other elves know her rage could destroy her.
- Of all the Young Avengers, shapeshifter Hulkling is probably the sweetest, most polite guy on the team. But... don't hurt his boyfriend. They don't call him "Hulkling" just because he's green.
- There was once this really nice guy, who had finally come back from the Vietnam War and just wanted to spend it with his family. He was an ordinary retired Marine, who loved his wife and two children wholeheartedly. Then, he took them to a picnic in Central Park....
- DCU's Miss Martian. M'gann is notoriously sweet, charming and really just the kind of person that likes cute puppies, however she is actually a member of the stupefyingly powerful White Martian race, and although she isn't a bad guy in the slightest whether or not she'll succumb to her baser instincts is always up for debate. In later issues she fights and then merges with an evil future version of herself who apparently committed and instigated such unspeakable crimes against humanity that the entire White Martian race was captured and enslaved because of her.
- M'gann's teammate Kid Devil is also one to beware. While Eddie projects the image of a loveable loser, he hides a lot of anger from constantly being underestimated by villains and his peers. In one instance, while drugged up by the Dark Side Club and thrown into a death match with Hardrock (a teenage Thing), he's beaten to the point that he suddenly loses it, turns the fight around in just a few punches, and almost kills Hardrock by ripping his jaw off. It takes Miss Martian to talk him out of it, reminding him that he's a good guy. The second instance comes when Eddie and Blue Beetle are tracking down supervillain Shockwave, whom had mockingly called Eddie Beast Boy the first time they fought. They split up to look for Shockwave, but he's in the wrong city. Upon finding out, Eddie loses his temper, furious that he's been upstaged by Beetle yet again. In his rage, he creates a portal for the first time and teleports to Salt Lake City to viciously beat up the villain and melt his armor.
- From all the members of the Batfamily you wouldn't expect Nightwing to be the baddest but he has proven he is.Just ask Blockbuster.He also beat the Joker to death(of course he is later revived).
- Dr. Magnus, creator of the DCU's Metal Men, is normally a fairly timid guy. As 52 showed us, though, after being kidnapped, forced to recreate the Plutonium Man, pushed to the breaking point by Chang Tzu, and deprived of his medication, he battles, and defeats, a member of the Great Ten with nothing but a group of makeshift six-inch Metal Men and a particle wave weapon. He even frightens off other Mad Scientists, after they had previously been almost eager to confront the JSA. As he puts it: "I DO CRAZY THINGS WITHOUT MY MEDS!"
- There's also Tin. Tin is a shy, meek little milquetoast with a pronounced stammer and a very slight physique. However, he's got something to prove and is repeatedly shown to actually be the bravest of the Metal Men when it comes down to it. Also, he will fuck you up given half a chance and proper motivation.
- Bruce Banner is usually a pretty nice guy. Just don't get him angry. You won't like him when he's angry.
- Bruce Banner himself isn't exactly helpless either. Word Of God confirms that his intelligence is on par with Tony Stark or Reed Richards; he's been able to avoid the authorities countless times and was able to hold his own in a few fights without turning into the Hulk. If you are dumb enough to piss him off, he WILL smash you.
- All the above is being explored in the current (December 2009) 'Banner & Son' storyline which sees Banner temporarily unable to transform into the Hulk. He still manages to take down villains like Juggernaut and the Harpy by being a Gadgeteer Genius (and with a little help from Skaar). In fact, Norman Osborn considers Banner to be a far greater threat to him than the Hulk ("The Hulk is purely reactive... Banner thinks he's some sort of hero") and exposes Banner to a substance which will accelerate the reacquisition of his Hulk powers.
- During this time, he also muses whether the Hulk is there to protect him from the world or to protect the world from Banner.
- Wedge Antilles is a self-possessed heroic Ace Pilot who is about as Neutral Good as you can get. He's got far less of a temper than most of his pilots, is loyal to his friends, and is unusually welcoming of people who have defected to his side from the Empire. But in Mandatory Retirement, one of his pilots died rescuing a high-ranking Imperial defector. Said defector objected to being transported in the same shuttle as "animal filth"(the dead Rogue happened to be nonhuman). Wedge responded by grabbing the man by the collar, doing a two-handed Neck Lift, and saying "Don't make me go Vader on you. Ibitsam was a pilot and a friend and she died to save your sorry hide."
- Oh, also... don't be the man who caused his parents' deaths and then taunted him about it. Yikes.
- Summed up quite nicely by Commander Rootrock on New Plympto in the Star Wars Clone Wars comics, referring to the Jedi:
- Sam, from Sam And Max Freelance Police. He's that scary when he gets angry that, ironically, Max has to calm him down.
- Lahr the Gelfling from the The Dark Crystal prequel manga. He starts the story as a laidback shepherd. Then Garthim destroy his village, kidnap all of his friends and family, and break his flute. Lahr reacts by stabbing a Garthim to death with the broken flute and wields the flute like a sword for the rest of the book He later helps convince a nearby Gelfling village to take up arms against a Garthim swarm. This when Gelflings were an artistically inclined, peaceful race who had believed Garthim to be indestructible.
Film
- Shaun in Shaun Of The Dead, whilst not exactly sweet and gentle, is almost supernaturally willing to put up with the slobby, selfish and lazy behaviour of his best friend Ed, and will defend Ed to anyone who criticises Ed for these qualities. Then, Shaun has an epiphany, the Dead rise and start to claim the Earth, and Ed makes the mistake of pushing Shaun's tolerance of his self-centred and increasingly reckless behaviour a little too far when he takes a trivial phone call on his mobile and puts everyone at risk:
Shaun: What you doing, you stupid moron?
Ed: Fuck off!
Shaun: You fuck off! Fuck fucking off! I've spent my whole life sticking my neck out for you, and all you ever do is fuck things up! Fuck things up and make me look stupid! Well, I'm not going to put up with it anymore, okay?! Not today!
- In a similar vein, Silent Bob, of the various movies made by Kevin Smith, finally reaches his limit for Jay's abuse and idiocy and yells at Jay. Though the explosion is short-lived, it is the only time Silent Bob raises his voice.
- This example is also one of the few times that we see Jay — who never stops crudely mouthing off and throwing his weight around — shocked into meek compliance.
- Similarly, whenever there is fighting to be done in Dogma, Silent Bob is in the thick of it. He knocks out the Golgothan with his trusty deodorant spray, and throws both Bartleby and Loki from the commuter train.
- Yoda, when facing a Sith Lord in Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
- Speaking of Star Wars, remember that sweet kid Anakin in Episode I? Whatever happened to him?
- And in the original trilogy, Luke is trying to fight Vader calmly and peacefully. Until Vader threatens to corrupt Leia. Luke promptly removes Vader's hands.
- In Sky High, Leila refuses to use her plant-control powers for violence, even when being taunted by the self-replicating cheerleader Penny - until Penny slaps her.
- Repo! The Genetic Opera has Nathan Wallace, a sweet, loving, gentle, somewhat campy man who dotes on his daughter, Shilo. He also happens to be a Repo Man. In 'Let The Monster Rise', when he realises that Rotti has stolen Shilo from him, he completely snaps. It ain't pretty.
- Gremlins 2: The New Batch. Gizmo, tired of the Gremlins abusing his gentle nature, fashions a flaming arrow out of office materials and burns Spider Mohawk alive.
Murray Futterman: What happened to him?
Billy: I don't know. I guess they pushed him too far.
- At the beginning of Death Wish, Paul Kersey is a kind, patient man who loves his wife and daughter. A conscientious objector, he served in the Korean War as a battlefield medic, and currently makes his living as an architect in New York. One day, his home is broken into by three men who rape his daughter and kill his wife. Kersey goes to town on the local criminal scum, killing eleven men before being told by the police to leave town. But it seems there are still thieves and murderers in Chicago...
- John Candy had moments like this in his movies sometimes.
- Pretty much the entire plot of Carrie.
- Optimus Prime in Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen. Sure, he's Optimus Prime, who willingly takes orders from humans, and would like nothing more than to find a diplomatic solution to the war that wouldn't mean killing any more of his kind, but let us not forget that he's supposed to be the single greatest Autobot warrior of all time. Don't believe me? In Revenge, he fights Megatron, Starscream and Grindor, all at the same time. To a standstill. And kills Grindor. And comes close to killing Starscream before getting backstabbed by Megatron.
- "GIVE ME YOUR FACE!" is about the most disturbing yet awesome thing you can hear Optimus Prime saying.
- The 1960 Japanese film Yoshiwara: The Pleasure Quarter, directed by Tomu Uchida, can best be described as, "Picture The Blue Angel if it had ended with Emil Jannings taking a samurai sword and going medieval on Marlene Dietrich's ass."
- In the first Transporter, Frank Martin completes a delivery, then is asked to carry another package .. which blows up his car at a chance moment he's not driving it. Unstoppable Rage ensues. Also Curb Stomp Battle.
- Jim from 28 Days Later is a fairly gentle-natured guy right up until the last part of the movie when he goes batshit crazy and starts sticking his thumbs in people's eyes. In fairness, he has been through rather a lot
- In A History of Violence, Tom Stall looks like he might count, but his dangerous persona is dangerous all the time. For a straight example, his son. Nice, nerdy, would rather make fun of himself than get in a fight. Gets pushed too far and puts the quarterback school jock in the hospital, and assault and battery charges are mentioned.
- Somehow we managed to get this far without mentioning Straw Dogs, which could be one of those over-the-top Public Service Announcements on Bewaring The Nice Ones. Dustin Hoffman is a mild-mannered American tourist Fish Out Of Water in a close-knit rural English village. He puts up with all kinds of crap from them with barely an angry word. Then they invade his home... and break his glasses.
- This is the way the movie Mongol describes Temüjin: for most of the movie he is a sweet kid and latter a nice fellow who just wants to live with his wife, but after being betrayed by father's warriors, having his wife kidnapped and raped and being reduced to slavery twice, he snaps and turns into a full fledged Magnificent Bastard, and manage to conquer/submit/destroy everything and everyone who treated him unfairly
- Many of the characters of Crocodile Dundee fit well here, especially Mick, Sue and Donk.
- At the beginning of Die Hard, John Mc Clane is portrayed as nice guy, who just wants to try and save his marriage and spend Christmas with his family.
Literature
- Discworld has:
- Magrat Garlick, "the nice one" of the main witches of Lancre, a kind, romantic Cloud Cuckoo Lander Granola Girl who just wants to help people and who seems used to being treated as a doormat and a wet hen. She's also demonstrated a willingness to fight viciously if pushed too far (witness what she does to the "Sisters" in Witches Abroad, or the elves in Lords and Ladies).
- She's like a small, furry animal. "And the trouble with small furry animals in a corner is that, just occasionally, one of them's a mongoose."
- "Magrat was always the nice, kind, soft one... who'd just fired a crossbow through the keyhole."
- Though not as obvious as Magrat, Nanny Ogg is definitely someone you don't want to piss off. Contrast to Granny Weatherwax, Nanny is the nicest person you're likely to meet(unless you're one of her daughter-in-laws), but pushing her is a very bad idea, evidenced by her threatening the Elf king.
- "A mind like a buzzsaw behind a face like an old apple. She may actually be more powerful than Granny."
- Heck, for that matter, Granny Weatherwax is a semi-example. She's not exactly what you would picture when you think "nice" but what you see is her nice side. You don't want to see her when she's being mean.
- Lest we forget what she does to the would-be-robbers in Maskerade, there is nothing more terrifying than Granny Weatherwax about to do what is right.
- There's also a rare male example of this trope in Carrot Ironfoundersson, a six-foot-six tall dwarf (adopted human, of course). He is perfectly kind, lawful, and incorruptible in a city that is far from any of the above, always sees the bright side of things, and is friendly to everyone he meets. He can convince bloodthirsty desert tribesmen not to charge (or, as one who knows said tribesmen says, "Make water run uphill"), get rival street gangs to play football, and have a friendly chat with a dictatorial if cultured tyrant. He's also strong and skilled enough to fight hand-to-hand with an alpha male werewolf and survive (in The Fifth Elephant), has a punch that will knock out a troll (those are guys made of solid rock, for those keeping score), and along with having a sword sharp and strong enough to do it, push a sword through a stone pillar like a knife through butter (in Men At Arms). It is not a good idea to give him a reason to take the gloves off, as the man standing between Carrot and said pillar found out.
- Oddly enough, Carrot also subverts the trope by his buttons not being pushable by most personal methods. When his girlfriend/lover/person-with-whom-he-has-an-Understanding is kidnapped (in Jingo) and skips town (in The Fifth Elephant), he informs the proper authority before trying to go after her. This is because he believes with all his heart that personal is not the same as important.
- I'd say this makes him MORE dangerous. How many heroes have been dissuaded from doing in the bad guy by a convenient personal appeal?
- Remember, Boys and Girls; "If you have to look along the shaft of an arrow from the wrong end, if a man has you at his mercy, then hope like hell that man is an evil man. Because the evil like power, power over people, and they want to see you in fear. They want you to know you are going to die. So they'll talk. They'll gloat ... A good man will kill you with hardly a word."
- At one point Angua asks him if he'd kill her if she'd let her werewolf instincts get the better of her. He ponders the question and replies that yes, he would. It was the answer she wanted to hear, though.
- Carrot is also scary for one very particular reason: There is exactly one scene, lasting all of a single page, which is written from his point of view. That nobody knows what he's really thinking is an important part of his overall character.
- And Mort in Mort. Death's controlling ways and preference for extreme consequences causes him to challenge the Grim Reaper himself in one-on-one combat. "My name is Mort, you bastard!"
- The angel Aziraphale of Good Omens. Members of The Mafia that threaten his bookstore are never heard from again.
- Stephen King's Carrie, who on top of all the abuse heaped on her at school and by her mother, has one too many things go wrong on prom night, and thus goes on a killing spree.
- Stephen King excels at this trope; Cujo was another example, and Jack Torrance (though he did have a history) in The Shining.
- Not movie Torrance, though. We all know he was crazy from the start. He's played by Jack Nicholson, that should be a warning sign.
- And let's not forget Jake of the Dark Tower series. A nice normal little kid - but capable of being as ruthlessly efficient a killing machine as any other Gunslinger when necessary.
- Near the end of A Storm of Swords, Tyrion Lannister finds out that his horribly abused first wife Tysha, who he thought was a prostitute, actually loved him. This is the last straw, and he swears vengeance on his family and kills his father (on the privy, no less) along with his former concubine (who had humiliated him during a show trial). *And* he tells his older brother Jaime that sooner or later he'll kill him too, for obeying their dad's orders of following the charade.
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows has at least one lovely example of this. Molly Weasley is normally a pretty sweet-natured lady. However, make the mistake of threatening her baby girl, as Bellatrix Lestrange did, and you'd better hope your life insurance policy is up to date.
- And Hermione Granger. Good Lord, Hermione Granger. Nerds are scary when they angry. Her list including: punching Malfoy straight in the face, scare the shit out Weasley twins, putting Rita Skeeter under her thumb.
- Keep in mind, her method of scaring the Weasley twins was threatening to tell their mother what they were up to.
- Edmond Dantes from The Count Of Monte Cristo.
- To elaborate, Edmond was a guy who had everything going for him, then lost everything thanks to being screwed over by whom he thought were his friends. What ensues is a gigantic Xanatos Gambit to take revenge on every last one of them and their families.
- In The Dresden Files book Summer Knight, the faerie Aurora, the Lady of the Summer Court (which is generally much, much nicer than its counterpart the Winter Court), gets so sick of seeing the suffering caused by the continual war between the two Courts that she kills Summer's human Knight (their emissiary to the mortal world), stores his power in a changeling girl, turns said girl into a statue, and plans to sacrifice the girl in order to transfer the power to Winter, tipping the balance of power in Winter's favor and causing the end of the world as we know it.
- In the same book, Changeling Fix beats the crap out of the Winter Knight Lloyd Slate with a wrench after he mortally wounds Meryl.
- And now Fix is the new Summer Knight, with the powers that come with the office.
- For that matter, Harry Dresden himself can be considered one of these. He comes off as cheerfully geeky, quoting comics and movies in the middle of dangerous situations, which sometimes leads people to forget he's a damn decent wizard in his own right.
- Do not mess with Michael. Ever. And especially don't threaten his family. This applies to all of the Knights, actually...
- Behold Waldo Butters, geeky, cowardly Non Action Guy. Spends most of Dead Beat panicking and needing to be rescued. But when he's on the ropes, he tackles Quintus Cassius and attacks him with his teeth to save Harry.
- In the first book of Raymond E. Feist and Janny Wurts's Empire Trilogy, the basically sweet and gentle Mara, who has had the position of ruler thrust upon her, marries a young man who starts abusing her on their wedding night. In response, she manipulates him into a position where he's forced to commit ritual suicide.
- Heck, messing with Lady Mara is generally a VERY bad idea. Consider the way she snaps in Mistress of the Empire, when she has her spymaster eradicate an entire order of assassins because they killed her son, another not-yet-born child of hers and very nearly herself.
- Honor Harrington in the eponymous series. Even though warfare is her business, when she's not doing that, she pours her personal resources into public and charitable works. She'll even take it when abuse gets heaped on her head. But harm somebody she considers to be under her protection, and you unleash an Unstoppable Rage that will run you to the ground.
- The nicest character in the Wheel Of Time is Perrin Aybara, a henpecked husband, thats basically his wife's bitch. In one memorable scene after his wife has been kidnapped he chops off an Aiel's hand, orders an Aes Sedai to heal the stump, and then tells the Aiel that unless he talks Perrin will cut off his other hand and his feet, and then dump him into a town, so the Aiel can beg for a living. Then he walks away.
- The Ogier are an entire race of nice guys (on the main continent, at least). The saying 'To anger an Ogier and to pull a mountain over your head' is thought to refer to two impossibilities. Events show that it might have originally read 'To anger an Ogier is to pull a mountain over your head.'
- The Betsy The Vampire Queen series gives us Laura, daughter of Satan and one of the nicest people you could meet, since she's trying to be an Anti Anti Christ. Problem is, when she gets mad, she breaks out a sword of hellfire and slaughters everything in the area. Those instincts are a bitch to keep restrained.
- More of a "Nice Civilization" than "Nice Person", The Culture, the society in Iain M. Banks' series of novels, makes a point of being morally and ethically spotless, considers it their mission to find and improve the lives of "lesser species" and likes to ensure its denizens live happy and carefree. When you threaten this mission, they will go to war, and you will lose.
- Not only that, but the Culture is basically a civilisation of space hippies, whose Hat is "Make love, not war": they are so reluctant to go to war that it takes years long debate among its 30.000+ billions citizen to makes the Culture go to war. When the Idiran Empire crossed the line in Consider Phlebas, the war that followed cause the destruction of more that 14,000 space colonies, the death of over 850 billion intelligent beings, and the destruction of more than 50 planets and 6 stars: When you encounter space hippies, remember to be polite, courteous, and do not accuse them of being a threat to your way of life: if pissed off, they will blow up your home solar system. They may be softly spoken, but they carry really big sticks.
- Stick here being translated as the ability to reduce whatever patch of existence it's being fired at into absolute nothingness. Oh, and every single one of their warships is capable of reducing an entire world to slag, ...on their own....
- Lampshaded in that one of their spaceships is actually named I said, I've got a big stick (which is supposed to be spoken ''softly''...)
- There's the saying, quoted in several books "Do Not Fuck With The Culture." This is proved rather horrifically in Look to Windward.
- The Mord Sith in the Sword Of Truth series are the kindest, gentlest and most sensitive girls that can be found. They make the best torturers once they've been broken, because the greatest cruelty comes from the greatest kindness.
- In the book The Last Knight, Sir Michael is constantly honest, chivalrous and idealistic, much to his streetwise squire Fisk's disgust. But after Michael has spent a few weeks in a dungeon being force-fed experimental potions, even Fisk notes that he "preferred the crazy Sir Michael to the ruthless one."
- Cassie from the Animorphs series. Sure, she might be in a war, but only reluctantly (and she's usually the one pushing for 'plans other than kill them all'). But if you piss her off, heaven help you. Just ask Davis, who made the mistake of calling her the n-word - whereupon she turned into a polar bear and pinned him to a wall.
- She also suggested David's Fate Worse Than Death, being Mode Locked as a rat and stranded on a small island.
- Likewise the Chee - immensely strong androids, and hard-wired pacifists. Except the one time Erek was freed from that part of his programming, and proceeded to wipe out an entire strike force single-handed. It's mentioned at some point that he did more damage in one or two hours than the Animorphs themselves did in months of missions.
- And the Hork-Bajir are Beware The Nice Ones writ large: an entire race of peaceful, not-very-smart herbivores that are covered in blades so that they could strip bark from trees. The Yeerks happened to think they would make excellent shock troops, and Aldrea, the lone Andalite on their planet, encouraged them to fight back, instigating a very long, bloody war. They lost that one, but the Hork-Bajir who escaped have "Free or dead!" as their motto, and have become very willing to fight and kill to protect what they have, as Dak Hamee sadly observed.
- Two notable examples within The Lonely Winds : George Manor and Nails. Nails, while generally laid-back, gentle and amiable in spite of his nickname, has had several instances of hitting a berserk button when he sees others being hurt or abused, up to and including a Crowning Moment Of Awesome. George, the ordinarily loopy and silly-seeming mentor, has on occasion been observed to break bones and in one instance to immolate an opponent with magic when his charges or other innocents are threatened or hurt.
- The New Testament has Jesus, who is willing to forgive all the sins of humanity. But, when you reject God, turn the temple into a black market bazaar, and in this way prevent believers from worshipping God...I'd say "God help you," but I doubt He will.
- The book series Murphy's Lore takes place in a supernatural pub. The owner of said establishment is a kindly leprechaun named Padriac Moran, or Paddy for short. Normally, he's wise, gentle, and refuses to kill anything, including undead, because all life is sacred in his eyes. However, if you were to, say, desecrate the memory of his dead wife on the anniversary of her death, which the devil unwisely chose to do, at which point he will have enough alcohol in him to pickle a sperm whale, you will probably find yourself getting crushed as Paddy makes the floor beneath you turn into a mouth and bite you.
- Daine is a nice young girl from the mountains with frizzy hair and a good hand with animals. Then tell her that her beloved teacher is murdered. She'll reanimate dinosaur fossils, tear down a palace, specifically destroy tax rolls and imperial records to make the damage last, and get the entire nation's rats to infest the ruins for a year and a day. In the next book, when she finally corners the man responsible, not that Numair actually died, but still: She goes after him buck-ass naked with a badger claw and tears his throat out.
- Ashfur from Warrior Cats began literary life as a sweet, shy young apprentice. Then he became the series' most shining example of Break The Cutie, when his best friend is abducted by humans (though only temporarily), his mother is brutally murdered, his father (if you believe the family trees) is killed in battle, he loses the love of his life to the son of the cat that killed his mom, and finally is forced to mentor their kit. He'd always been sweet, gentle, and friendly, but then in Book 5 of the Third Series, he goes insane and tries to kill all three main characters, one of which is his own apprentice. No wonder his fangirls were upset.
- The Scolosaurus in The Fantastic Dinosaur Adventure is extremely timid and terrified of humans, but when he is cornered by the Tyrannosaurus, he loses his temper. The results are rather bloody.
- In Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None, Vera Claythorne appears to be a very sweet, sensible person... at first. And if you're not scared by the fact that she killed her former pupil so her lover could inherit the child's estate four years before the events of the novel, just wait and see what four days of psychological torture does to her...
- In the Night's Dawn trilogy by Peter F. Hamilton, the always polite and civilised Edenists go to great lengths to avoid killing, but when Al Capone sends a force to conquer a nearby Edenist habitat it gets wiped out. To the man.
- David Eddings seems to enjoy this one. Belgarion is a generally nice guy who tries to do the right thing, and if you go after his family or murder some farmers, "the right thing" tends to involve you, his BFS, and a demonstration of why he's allowed to put "Godslayer" on his official letterhead. Polgara has spent most of her life as a doctor and taking care of children, but can give you a matinee of your worst nightmare or turn you into a snake, and she isn't afraid to Shoot The Dog. But for the gold, there's Aphrael and Sephrenia in The Tamuli: upon learning that Zalasta had been plotting to kill Aphrael for several centuries, Aphrael begins planning to eat his heart, and Sephrenia enjoys breaking his spells (which hurts, oh sweet Edeamus it hurts) just a bit too much.
- Ender Wiggin isn't "a sweet little kid", he's even sweeter. He doesn't want to hurt anyone. He loves everyone he meets the way they love themselves. And if he determines someone should no longer be able to cause harm, he makes sure that someone will never be a threat, ever. He wasn't called the Xenocide, in the following novels, because he was the Formics' drinking buddy during the first book, after all.
- The titular society of the Freehold War series. Basically The Culture when it was a kid. Sex-crazed stoner party animals, the lot of them, and they always have room for company. And if you have enough a problem with that to invade their planet over it, they will blast, bomb and terrorize yours back to the Stone Age.
- The Dark Elf Trilogy has Drizzt Do'Urden, who at first is depicted as the Wide Eyed Idealist with a heart of gold. His enemies make the unfortunate mistake of assuming that he's weak and wind up having the living shit being beaten out of him in one of his biggest Unstoppable Rages in the history of dark elves. Oh yeah, did I mention that he's completely outnumbered and severely injured in most of these battles?
- This is one of JRR Tolkien's favorite tropes. Witness any and all Hobbits if you need an example.
- Talia of Sensholding, Royal Advisor/Confidant/Babysitter and generally softhearted little Yamato Nadeshiko sort complete with empathic powers. Sure she has had some self-defence training as a Herald, but one would think that her Companion is a bigger threat than she is, right? Well, those who have pushed her too far would be glad to inform you otherwise... if they stop screaming long enough.
- Kaitlynn in Privilege seems to be a Nice Girl, to the point where Ariana swears revenge on the girl who framed her...but when she fails to get her hands on the girl's inheritance, Kaitlynn snaps and reveals her true form: she was guilty after all, and is in fact quite the vicious little cold-blooded killer. She then becomes the series antagonist.
- Mendoza from The Company Novels, left to her own devices, is a quiet botanist. Give her a love interest, and she turns spy. Kill him, and suddenly she starts throwing human heads around.
- The heroes of Redwall are cute fuzzy little woodland animals, who live happily in an Abbey devoted to upholding peace. And if you wrong them, they will fuck you up.
- While Morrolan of Dragaera is portrayed in the main series as a Lawful Neutral (or possibly Lawful Evil) Jerk Ass who pets the dog frequently, his presentation in the prequel novels is as this. The narration talks about him being a rather amiable guy during his period of Oblivious Adoption, and had yet to lose his temper, since everyone around him was wise enough not to do anything to elicit an angry Morrolan. When followers of a Religion Of Evil kill some of his friends and torch part of his village, Morrolan's revenge consists of slaughtering three villages of these worshipers, man woman and child, and then killing their god.
Live Action TV
- Willow's transformation from meek geek to Big Bad in Buffy The Vampire Slayer after Tara's murder. Her evil Catch Phrase is "Bored now," and you had better keep your head down. Warren, Tara's killer, gets flayed soon after she speaks said phrase — and that's after she does some Cold Blooded Torture on him with the bullet used to kill Tara.
- They foreshadowed this quite a bit earlier, when Glory dared to mess with her girlfriend. It's almost a prequel of the later incident — Willow gets Scary Obsidian Eyes and tries her very best to kill the attacker. The only differences are the Power Levels on both sides and this little exchange:
Glory: What's this? Bag of tricks?
Willow: Bag of knives.
- And they foreshadowed it even earlier, back in Season Three, in the episode "Dopplegangland", when we see that the vampire Willow is sadistic, kinky, and bisexual. When Willow complains, "I'm so evil, and skanky... And I think I'm kind of gay!", then Buffy has to shut up Angel when he's about to explain that yes, the character of vampires really does reflect that of their inner selves. And indeed, Willow eventually becomes everything that she observed about Vampire Willow.
- In a Genre Savvy moment, ex-demon Anya saw it coming:
Buffy: But I think she'll be fine. You know, it's Willow, she of the level head.
Anya: Well, those are the ones you have to watch out for the most. Responsible types.
Buffy: Right. She might go crazy and start alphabetizing everything.
Anya: Responsible people are always so concerned about being good all the time that when they finally get a taste of being bad, they can't get enough.
- During Season Four, shortly after Willow's first Break The Cutie moment when Oz leaves, Riley asks her for help courting Buffy. After he charms her into becoming his accomplice, she coaches Riley in detail at a party, ending with "and remember, if you hurt her, I will beat you to death with a shovel. A vague disclaimer is nobody's friend. Have fun!"
- From the same 'verse, an Angel example: Fred was sweet, gentle, and just generally the nicest gal on the team. But on two occasions, she had her inner badass released and it was not pretty: In "Deep Down" she goes wacky on Connor with a taser when she discovers his complicity in Angel being sent to the bottom of the ocean and then, upon discovering in "Supersymmetry" that her physics professor sent her to Pylea, she plotted all sorts of nasty revenge, leading to the immortal line "You know what they say about karma? Well, I'm the bitch."
- And in the hell dimension in which she was trapped for five years, the cave she hid out in had a handy nearby ravine that she used to dispose of bodies.
- The Tenth Doctor in Doctor Who is, for the most part, a cheerful, bubbly and fun-loving character — unless, of course, you happen to really piss him off, in which case he'll incinerate and drown your (overgrown spider) children ("The Runaway Bride") or make you immortal and subject you to a horrific eternal prison from which there is no escape ("The Family of Blood"), amongst others. "No second chances," indeed.
- And seriously, don't harm a hair on Rose's head, because then NOTHING can stop him.
- Lampshaded in "Forest of the Dead" when the Doctor gives the villains an ultimatum to leave him alone or suffer. The villains, after realising just who the Doctor is, immediately back down and let him do whatever he wants.
- This is one of the Doctor's most Badass scenes. Saying "look me up" in a library really gets into the over-the-top coast.
- The Tenth Doctor hit an all new level at the end of The Waters of Mars. After getting tired of everyone dying around him, he decides to throw away the laws of time, declares himself the "Time Lord Victorious" in a speech that makes him in The Runaway Bride look sane, and saves a woman who was supposed to die. When confronted with his darker side, she kills herself in order to stop him.
- A lot of the other Doctors can be like this as well, sometimes as part of an Obfuscating Stupidity routine, but in many cases often going out of their way to reason with or persuade the villain to stop their plan and take the Doctor's compromise solution instead. The arrogant villain will often reject the Doctor's overture in over-confidence and push him ever further, only to quickly learn that this was a big, big mistake.
- Arguably, the Fifth Doctor from the older series fits into this category almost as well as the Tenth. While often trying to find non-violent and death-free solutions to the problems surrounding him, a lot of his adventures wind up with most everything around him dead - though arguably not always his fault. "Earthshock" is probably the best example - he spends much of the story trying to talk the Cyberleader our of destroying the earth, but then when that fails... he rubs gold into his respirator, then shoots him. Twelve times. Just to be sure.
- Also from Doctor Who, and definitely a failed Break The Cutie, is Rose Tyler. Rose is a very nice, very normal 19 year old Londoner. She also happens to be in love with the Doctor. When the Doctor is facing the Dalek fleet and tries to save Rose by sending her and the Tardis back to 2005, she loses it and attempts to break into the Tardis' central console. When she eventually does, she absorbs the entire Time Vortex, takes the Tardis back to the future, and uses its power to destroy the Dalek fleet and resurrect Jack.
- Though that was really more the TARDIS than Rose.
- James May on Top Gear usually endures his co-presenters' antics with good humor, but when they really irritate him, he can be pretty mean. Case in point: In a challenge to buy cheap Alfa Romeos and enter them in a car show, May had carefully cleaned and polished his car and was using it to tow Richard Hammond's. After Hammond "accidentally" bumped into his car one too many times, May disconnected the tow rope without a word and left him stranded.
- Annie of Being Human. A ghost who is generally sweet and shy, who's never actually been in a fight, and comes across as being the most soft and kind of the threesome (the others are a vampire and a werewolf). But then she remembers her ex-fiancee killed her. At first her attempts to spook him meet with epic fail. Then she corners him, reveals what her flat mates are. And then she whispers something so horrifying to him that he breaks down in tears, runs screaming and BEGS the police to protect him. Bear in mind her ex had previously been completely unrattled by coming face to face with a ghost and was a psychotic smug snake with no redeemable traits. A complete monster and she reduces him to a whimpering baby with a few words. DO NOT get on this girl's bad side.
- Later, she finds out that the vampires have started to kill some people they were keeping as a herd; she shows up at their HQ in full on poltergeist mode, ripping doors out of their hinges and sending multiple vampires flying into walls hard enough to be knocked out. It was a Crowning Moment of Awesome.
- In the British detective series New Tricks, Jack Halford is a quiet, softly-spoken and wise old cop who acts as a mentor to the rest of the team... who possesses, if sufficiently roused, a fierce and at times even violent temper. Do not taunt him about his dead wife, either.
- Supernatural: Sam Winchester - he's always got a kind word for someone shell-shocked from a brush with the supernatural, prefers to do research rather than pick locks and break faces, and will most certainly fuck you up if you even think about hurting his older brother. Just ask Gordon Walker (beheaded with barbed wire) or the Crossroads Demon (shot in the head) .
- Get Smart: KAOS has created an evil robot and CONTROL's robot, Hymie, must stop him. Hymie decides he wants to be nice, and tries to make friends with the enemy robot. It does not work and the evil robot finally goes too far. At that point Hymie notes, "Hey! Nice is nice, but enough is enough!" and fights the robot and defeats it with the help of Maxwell Smart.
- Space Cases: On the very second episode, the normally shy and self-effacing Radu gets infected with a virus, planted onto a teddy bear by an alien race as a form of biological warfare, and goes berserk. Before his illness-induced rampage is halted, the 'recreation room' is trashed, the ship's dotty android is in pieces, and Harlan almost gets Thrown Out The Airlock.
- Firefly: Why is the elderly, fatherly preacher a better shot than hardened mercenary Jayne when he chooses to fight?
- Happy-go-lucky Hiro Nakamura gets some pretty dark revenge on immortal Knight Templar Adam Monroe for killing his father Kaito. He buries him alive in the same graveyard where his father was buried, with nothing to keep Adam company but his own screams. Do NOT piss off Hiro.
- His Future Badass self in "Five Years Gone" should have been a warning...
- Adam himself, arguably. He comes across as a friendly guy, decent and caring (At least in modern times. In the past he's been a mercenary on at least four separate occasions) he just happens to want to wipe out billions of people and choose who survives to live in his new perfect world is all. Hiro's too much of a Cape to do that for pure revenge - this is a guy the world does not need to have turning up again.
- Future!Sylar is shown as a doting father, who loves to bake waffles for his son. Then Company appears. Syndicate shot his son. Sylar goes nuclear. LITERALLY.
- The really cool thing about this scene is how he's taking blows from a guy with super strength to protect his son. When that guy crushes his son with a table, Sylar steals his ability, beats the living crap out of him, then FRICKIN EXPLODES. Don't kill his son.
- Only character to come out of Volume 3 BETTER. Who'da thunk it?
- From the GN's, Linda Tarvara. A friendly, personable young girl with a caring demeanour who is often polite to people. She's a dedicated and takes pride in her work. She also murders people by RIPPING OUT THEIR SOULS so she can FEED on their abilities. Her first human victim? A sweet, lovely old woman who she tricks, traps and murders, all while acting kind and considerate. This girl makes Sylar look like a candidate for sainthood (Season 1 Sylar mind you, the emotionless murder machine, not the "Morally Grey" character of Season 3)
- Matt Parkman. Good natured, loving surrogate father to Molly and a man who desperately wants to be the best husband he can. But: Mess with his family or friends and expect trouble, as the fascist soliders under the command of Emile Danko learned when Matt forced them to slaughter each other.
- Or with Sylar. Locking him in a prison within his own mind, an empty world where years pass for every hour of real time, and then sealing his body behind a brick wall should do the trick. For two episodes, anyway. Mind you, Sylar borrowed Claire's Healing Factor, and used his newfound shapeshifting ability to move the part of the brain that can be attacked to disable it, so it's not like a bullet will bother him. That's the thing about some Moral Dissonance in Heroes: some of these villains are so powerful that you have to get creative to be sure they won't be back to relieve you of your gray matter someday. Notice that even these things almost never work!
- Claire Bennet has shades of this. While she just wants a normal life, she's also quick to make use of her powers to protect people she loves... or destroy those who have hurt her. Take Brody Mitchum, who tried to rape her, and turned out to have raped someone else. She drove his car into a brick wall. While he was in it.
- In Ideal Steve is part of a small gang and is the buttmonkey. At one point he snaps cuts off Cartoon Head's ear (he's got a mouse face glued on his head so think more plastic, less blood) and knocks out Psycho Paul and becomes the leader of the gang for a few episodes. It turns out he just can't keep up the tough guy facade and tries to get everybody back to normal by apologising and asking for Paul to become leader again. Paul accepts but not before removing one of his eyes. Did I mention the show is a comedy.
- President Jed Bartlet. Most of the time, a charming, amiable and folksy man with genuine affection for his staff (and who is greatly respected and admired by them in return), with a keen intelligence and encyclopedic knowledge of trivia. However, in the second episode, terrorists shot down a US military medical plane with the loss of life of all on board, including Bartlet's personal physician, for whom he had a great deal of affection for. And a different side of Bartlet emerged:
[chillingly calm] I am not frightened. I am going to blow them off the face of the Earth with the fury of God's own thunder.
- And pretty much all of the next episode revolves around Bartlet's increasing desire for his military aides to devise a plan which will literally wipe them off the face of the planet, and his frustration when they tell him that this is neither practical nor politically desirable.
- All of the main cast of NCIS, being a team of Bunny Ears Lawyers, are capable of surprising would-be bad guys with their competence, but especially notable is Abby, the Perky Goth Lab Rat who, as a civilian scientist and all-around Genki Girl, seems like an easy target... and manages to beat the stuffing out of almost every villain who's made that unfortunate assumption.
- "Always remember; I am one of the few people on Earth who can kill you and leave no forensic evidence."
- Frank Black from Millennium is mild-mannered, law-abiding, honorable, and dearly loves his family. It's also heavily implied through the first season that the reason he is so gifted in understanding the minds of serial killers is that he has the traits of a killer himself ("I become the capability, I become the horror, what we know we can become in our heart of darkness") culminating in him brutally butchering the man who kidnapped his wife.
- Despite having the strength of ten men and the ability to calculate frankly incredible statistics in mere seconds, Star Trek The Next Generation's Lt. Commander Data is generally a nice, good natured, pacifistic guy, and it takes a lot to get him riled due to the whole no emotions thing. Anyone who doubts his ability to totally kick ass when necessary, however, should really, really watch the episode "Descent I & II". And "Redemption". And "The Most Toys", for that matter. Seriously just... don't screw with him, okay?
Data: I assume your handprint will open the door, whether you are conscious or not.
- Quark feels this way about humans, and by proxy the Federation itself. Sure, as a whole the human race is a pretty decent bunch, but that's only during peace time. Push them too hard and you'll have some of the nastiest hitters in the galaxy. Specifically, the Federation may be all about peaceful coexistence and exploration, but remember that they "explore" with heavily-armed warships and have a super secret organization that will commit genocide on their behalf if something even breathes wrong. They've built escort vessel-sized warships that could go toe to toe with the dedicated war vessels of their contemporaries and can level planets from orbit.
- Basically, one way to look at it could be to say that humans are basically, in the 'Trek century, a bunch of fairly genuine pascifists who would rather use words than weapons... but the only reason that philosphy works is because they're so armed up to the back teeth that they don't NEED to use anger and violence as a line of defence. Then when enemies like the Borg come along and terrify the life out of us... well, then you get movies like First Contact.
- And Voyager gave us perpetual newbie and resident Butt Monkey Ensign Harry Kim... who in "The Chute" managed to hand beatdowns to hardened prison inmates in defense of his Heterosexual Life Partner Tom Paris, before finally snapping and turning on Paris himself. He was on aggression-enhancing drugs, but still. There was also his Heroic BSOD at the end of "Timeless."
- Middle Man. An old-fashioned, milk-drinking, seldom-swearing, well-dressed, earnest, polite, and naive gentleman who tortured a mob leader for info in front of his own bar, while drinking a tall, frosty glass of milk.
- Battlestar Galactica: You won't believe who overthrew the Galactica's military. Felix Gaeta! Not only that, he ordered the murder of President Roslin!
- Vir Cotto from Babylon 5 is usually a milquetoast... unless you're trying to recruit him to The Dark Side. When asked what he wants:
"I'd like to live just long enough to be there when they cut off your head and stick it on a pike as a warning to the next ten generations that some favors come with too high a price. I'd look up at your lifeless eyes and wave like this. Can you and your associates arrange it for me, Mr. Morden?"
- A milquetoast who, at one point, organizes an underground railroad at the risk of his career and possibly his life. As was lampshaded in the final episode, the story of Vir Cotto is the story of how Flounder became Badass.
- Let us not forget that he killed Cartagia. Or the incident with the Drazi stallholder.
- Lennier also shows tendencies of this.
- Vila Restal is a cowardly drunken safecracker who drops a Federation officer with one punch after she shoots Dayna.
- Stan from In Plain Sight:
Malone: So, Stan McQueen. "Little Jack," I used to call him.
Marshall: Why is that?
Malone: Because he's like a Jack Russell Terrier. Pound for pound, probably the toughest man I know.
Mary and Marshall: Stan?
Malone: Well, you know, he plays that shy, quiet thing pretty well, but you don't want to be the guy he's looking at when the switch flips.
Mary: I didn't even know he had a switch.
- Divya: "Evan, if you breathe a word of this to anyone I will find a medically plausible way to kill you, and get away with it."
- While Rodney McKay of Stargate Atlantis isn't really nice per se, he's the most non violent character on any offworld team, and his wide blue woobie eyes make him victim fodder, not to mention the many times he's kidnapped. But he will often unleash a barrage of infinite The Reason You Suck speeches at the bad guy, or even his own team members when particularly stressed. That said, please don't give him wraith enzyme. Ever.
- And while Dr. Daniel Jackson really wants to get to know you and your culture, is a very sweet and gentle guy, and would prefer not to fight, if he has to, he will mess you up at least as badly as his career-military teammates because of his fierce determination to do the right thing. The man will NOT give up, even if he has to sacrifice himself to do it. And then he will somehow turn up alive again, because he's just that kind of person.
- The eponymous Merlin. Adorable, loyal, and a bit of a Dojikko, but help you god if you ever try to kill anyone he cares about, because that is last thing you will ever do. His anger is sudden and his powers are fierce and he will blast you off the face of the earth.
- In S4 of Smallville, Clark Kent was a shy, unassuming character, generally avoiding the limelight and talking his way out of battles; even in his fights he'd use defensive maneuvers to defeat his foes. Then, his lady love Alicia was murdered by a meteor freak. The transformation happens moments after his scream of anguish while holding his dead girlfriend; Lois barely managed to stop him from choking the culprit out of existence.
- Perhaps best summarized in the pilot episode (and opening) of the 1970s Incredible Hulk. "Mr. McGee, don't make me angry. You wouldn't like me when I'm angry." Remember that in this version, the Hulk essentially is Banner, but with tremendous strength, and a child's mentality.
- In House, Dr. James Wilson seems deeply kind, caring, and eternally compassionate to his patients, and nearly as much so to his friends. And he is, until he gets pushed far enough to reveal that deep down, he can be just as much of a cold, snarky manipulative bastard as House - maybe even more so. He just chooses not to be because it seems healthier.
Music
- Kenny Roger's classic "Coward of the County". A man who'd turned his back on fighting all his life beats three men to a pulp after they rape his wife.
- Lemon Demon's "Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny" brings together absolutely everyone in a Battle Royale With Cheese, from Batman to Godzilla to Chuck Norris. The winner? Mr. Rogers in a bloodstained sweater.
Professional Wrestling
- Often used for a Face Heel Turn; for example, when Bob Backlund made his early '90s return to WWE, he was portrayed as a nice older guy who loved to compete and served as a mentor to the younger wrestlers on the roster — right up until he snapped, putting Bret Hart in the crossface chicken-wing out of jealousy, and becoming an uber-reactionary psychopath. WWE owner Vince McMahon's evolution from goofy good-guy announcer to maniacally lecherous and evilly manipulative corporate boss following the Montreal Screwjob (see Dropped A Bridge On Him) is another good example, also an example of Real Life Writes The Plot.
- Though sometimes the face doesn't turn heel, they just reveal that they've Took A Level In Badass. The Undertaker is particularly adept at this.
- John Cena can typically be counted on to be a guy who's pretty calm and relaxed and willing to joke around and playfully mock his opponents, and when competing in fair fights will still find plenty of time to have fun. Piss him off a little too much, though, and he'll start doing things like throwing around 500-pound men, ripping pipes out of the machinery and taking them to someone's face, and trying to run people down with forklifts.
- Kofi Kingston is a pretty level-headed guy who is often seen with a smile, but if you push him over the edge, he'll hit back hard. On the 10/26/2009 edition of WWE Raw, after losing the WWE Championship in an Iron Man match to John Cena the previous night at Bragging Nights, a livid Randy Orton ambushed Kofi, claiming he was the reason he lost, with Kofi clearing Orton's Legacy teammates out of the ring, after getting blamed by them for costing team Raw the 7-on-7 tag team match. A little later, Orton's Legacy teammates tried to calm him down with a custom Nascar car. Soon after that, while Legacy was in the ring, Kofi broadcasted himself on the titantron as he defaced Orton's car, his face alternating from mischevious glee to uncharacterisitic anger. It got worse in the following weeks.
Videogames
Webcomics
- White Mage from 8-Bit Theater shows this after rebuilding a city and its inhabitants from destruction at various hands (although mostly Black Mage) only to have the city yet again annihilated at the hands of, apparently, Black Mage. Feeling distressed and angered (also mostly due to Black Mage, although Fighter had an unwitting hand in it), she changes her robes and begins bestowing her mediocre evil upon the world for a couple comics until changing back after a strange talk with Fighter.
- One guest strip had Black Mage push her over the edge with one too many pickup lines, whereupon she began chasing him with a chainsaw.
- A better example would be Fighter, the nicest, friendliest, ditziest character in the comic who has a very potent Berserk Button whenever his friends, especially Black Mage, are threatened. He went into an Unstoppable Rage when Black Mage was killed, fought a fire demon to a standstill after she killed Black Belt, and this comic.
Fighter: Also, I can block any attack and kill anything that bleeds. Hint.
- Thief and Red Mage better watch themselves... they almost made that mistake again.
Thief: Yes, it is a good thing. Leaving him to rot would be wrong.
Red Mage: So very wrong.
Fighter (holding up a sword): Kind of chainsaw wrong.
Thief: Okay, good thing we're all on the same page then!
- While he is in no way a nice one, a case can be made for Sarda given that he used to be the Onion Kid whose life Black Mage repeatedly ruined and seeks revenge against the Light Warriors for doing nothing to stop Black Mage.
- El Goonish Shive has Grace, super cute pacifist who just wishes people wore less clothes. You can tie her up, torture her, even tell her you are going to use her for a breeding program. Make her believe you have hurt one of her friends though and there is no power on Earth or beyond that can save you.
- Rikk, the leader of the Science Fiction Club in Fans!, is as nice, gentle and forgiving a man as you're ever likely to meet. However, during a storyline in Fans! which sees a bitter ex-boyfriend of Alisin's blackmail her into joining him, while simultaneously attempting to destroy the fan-club and replace it with a new, darker version - Rikk is finally pushed too far, and beats the ex-boyfriend to a pulp before someone stops him from going too far.
- Piro from Mega Tokyo is an example, as a group of perverted otaku voyeurs in a restaurant found out. This is more obvious in Piro's online alter-ego Piroko, and associated wallpapers/tshirt with a cute girl carrying a big gun, and the phrase "Ph34r t3h cute ones".
- Ping from the same comic could be an example, as well. She's normally sweet, cute and caring, but get her angry and she proves to have the strength to uproot a street lamp and use it to beat a giant monster into submission.
- Nice people in the Walkyverse usually get this. Joyce is a prime example. So is Walky himself, for that matter. Not to mention Amber... So Yeah, this list could go on for a bit.
Joyce: "This is for the thousands of little comments that are hammered into me every day! "Stop giggling, Joyce!" "Put down your dumb toys, Joyce!" You can only take so much... Until you snap."
- In the Rescue Rangers fan comic Of Mice and Mayhem Gadget, usually the epitome of kindness, attacks the men who were after her when Chip gets shot trying to protect her.
- Lemmy in Fanboys is a genuinely nice guy, but woe be unto anybody that says Nintendo is a kiddy system.
- ANGRY CLOWN MODE.
- An impact to the head can do it. When running from a crazed feral crab in the Beach Episode, he crashes headfirst into a sign, which triggers the aforementioned Angry Clown Mode, allowing him to handily demolish his tormentor.
- Surprisingly, Hannelore, Questionable Content's resident Woobie. Not to mention her dreams.
- Out of Ctrl+Alt+Del's "Four Players" side story, Player Three, the yellow one, is the one to be careful of. Sure, he starts out as the Butt Monkey of the other three players, each more sadistic than the next, but has been known to snap while put under extreme duress. Player Two fell victim to this, as Three grabbed him and slammed him against the wall until he ragdolled all while shouting, "STOP IT<". He then came to and tried to apologize for what he just did.
- In Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures, it's Mab.
- In Bun-Bun's continuing feud with Santa Claus in Sluggy Freelance, Mrs. Claus is the one pushing for the two of them to just let it go, but she's also the more dangerous Claus when she has to be. Bun-Bun acknowledges her as a better shot than Santa, and it's her who sets up the Xanatos Gambit that stops Bun-Bun from taking over the world.
- Gilgamesh Wulfenbach. Just... Gilgamesh Wulfenbach.
- Here too.
- To explain, he's a genius who never even bothered to build a death ray, and who will put up with massive annoyance to avoid killing people he neither likes nor respects, but when an enemy army really gets in his way, he smashes it in about five seconds.
- Liza from Tonja Steele is a good example, as she's usually a sweet-natured schoolteacher. Some of it is explained when we meet her parents◊.
- Elan in most of Order Of The Stick; naive, sweet-natured but ditzy Cloudcuckoolander. Elan in strip #594, after Smug Snake Kubota poisons his lackey Therkla (who was in the midst of a Heel Face Turn) and she dies in Elan's arms; Unstoppable Rage-driven Bad Ass. It's only Kubota's swift-but-slimy opportunism that prevents him from getting a severely lethal ass-kicking at Elan's hands, and even then he still gets a black eye for his trouble.
- Black Eye? That's a black eye to you? He got reduced to dust by V.
- There's also the Monster in the Dark. While he (she? it?) has not yet gone past the breaking point, strip #475 suggests that making the monster angry is an idea so stupid that it borders on Too Dumb To Live.
- Quentyn of Tales Of The Questor gets his sword stolen, and in the course of retrieving it gets arrested multiple times, mugged, shot at, dropped through a roof, stripped naked in front of a crowd of toffs (and his childhood crush), and then violently beaten and tossed in a dumpster. He promptly girds up his loins and proceeds to utterly wreck not one, but TWO street gangs singlehandedly and literally pull an entire building down around their ears... and would have REALLY torn them a new one had the city guard not intervened.
- The Raccoonan nation topped that in the companion strip, Quentyn Quinn Space Ranger. In there, the horrific cannibal species, the Kvrk-Chk, made a public show of what they would do the Raccoonan race when they ate a number of them on camera, The Raccoonans retaliated the next day by destroying one of the heavier populated Kvrk-Chk solar systems and gave the race a very good reason to fear the Raccoonan people.
- Plant Woman. It's one thing if you've only built *two* machines of death and destruction. The first law of robotics is thrown out the window completely when you announce the third.
- This strip from The Adventures of Dr. McNinja plays this straight. Could we make panel #6 the new page image?
- Faen from Drowtales. She's a rather shy, sensitive girl, who also happens to be a powerful Empath with less than perfect control over her powers. Strong fear/anger cause Power Incontinence and since she's a projective Empath, people get hurt.
- Calvin/Freckle from Lackadaisy Cats. Shy, scared, and gullible, but put him in a life-or-death situation and give him a gun...
Web Animation
Web Original
- Codex of The Guild is shy and accomodating to the point of being an Extreme Doormat, but when she found out her boyfriend had dumped her for another man she set fire to his cello. Which does not bode well for Wade, Riley, Zaboo and/or Clara in Season 3
- The Saga Of Tuck has several perfectly nice, ordinary characters who are all but trained covert operatives in intelligence, counterintelligence, black propaganda and sabotage.
- Stray contains an incident where this trope is applied to Otacon, of all people. It turns out that the quirky, tenderhearted, non-action anime geek can be dangerously resourceful when backed into a corner.
- DC Nation - Dr. Light had unleashed a toxin that was killing all prepubescent children in North America as revenge for his Mind Rape at the hands of the JLA, just to make sure that the heroes' children suffered. He captured Sue Dibny to "finish what he started." A JLA strike team was sent after him. Light had them all on the ropes and was dangerously close to killing the Elongated Man when Sue broke out of her holding cell, and armed with Hal Jordan's ring, proceeded to open up a literal can of whoop-ass on him while cussing him out in English and Yiddish.
- In Red Vs Blue, Sheila is pretty nice and even-tempered, especially in comparison to the rest of the cast. She's also the installed AI in a tank.
- Another AI example is Delta. Mostly emotionless, he's nonetheless shown subtle and very touching dedication to his partner York, even insisting on staying beside him into death. He's later revived, and partnered with South Dakota, who proceeds to try using him as bait to let herself escape. When South is captured, it's Delta that recommends that she not be given further opportunity for betrayals.
- Sybille Rochefort, a human scientist from the WALL-E Forum RP, is generally a quiet and friendly woman. Until someone crosses the lines, and wakes the sleeping thunderstorm (in the words of the man who had a crush on her)
- In the Whateley Universe, Jade Sinclair (Generator) qualifies. Normally the cute, shy, wacky 'little sister' figure, when she's pushed too hard one day, and then attacked by Bloodwolf (an avatar of the werewolf spirit) and two fellow Ultraviolents, she snaps. Bloodwolf ends up nailed to a tree. With railroad spikes.
- Lately she seems to be actively considering a potential career as the Psycho Babysitter From Hell — perfectly harmless to her future charges, but woe to whoever thinks to threaten them.
- It bears mentioning that, of those among her circle of friends who have killed other people (which include a terrifyingly powerful mage, a girl who wields a sword that can cut through anything, a soul-eating demon and Tennyo The Motherfucking Destroyer), Jade's kill count exceeds the rest combined by a factor of four. At the very least.
- Speaking of which, Tennyo herself is a very kind, if somewhat somber, person who spends a lot of time worrying about accidentally hurting others with her powers. Considering how powerful she is, she has good reason to worry, so it is generally considered a very bad idea to give her a reason not to care about this.
- In fact, let's put the entirety of Team Kimba, plus Carmilla, on the list.
- Chakats are usually nice to a fault — empathic, social, family-oriented, and almost too good to be true except that they normally actually are. Don't, however, threaten one's cubs or even hir best friends and family will have trouble keeping hir from shredding you on the spot...
Western Animation
Real Life
- The Semai of Malaysia are an anthropological rarity and a good example of this trope. They are a society with almost no interpersonal violence, with words for warfare not even existing in their language. During a communist insurrection in Malaysia, some Semai were involved in the fighting and they became effective fighters, almost fanatical ones. The Semai who fought described themselves afterwards as "drunk on blood," and they surprised themselves by their behavior, although they weren't upset by it.
- Canada... though, when you think about it, really dumbed down, and very stereotypical. As peacekeepers, Canadians... well, keep the peace. Canadians are notoriously known as a pacifist country, to only fight if absolutely necessary (e.g. War on terrorism, to keep people from being terrorized). The Canadian military, though very few, are very, very, good at what they do. Military training for Canada makes it so that every soldier that comes out has taken a level in badass. This Canadian Troper's uncle is living proof, though it only shows when someone manages to say something stupid, or insult him. Don't say something stupid and derogatory to a Canadian Soldier. Just don't.
- Credit for the longest confirmed sniper kill in history goes to a soldier from...? Canada. Over a MILE AND A HALF.
- Nearly two miles in fact. That's just over three kilometers. Most snipers and their weapons are considered effective at HALF that range.
- This Troper's mother is work friends with the sniper mentioned above and has described him as a "giant teddy bear", making him an even bigger example of Beware the Nice Ones.
- Aww, what a cute description for a snip*gets shot. Nearly two miles away*.
- The same goes for any given ANZAC (Australia/New Zealand Army Corps) unit. The Australian and New Zealand Defence Forces take a great deal of pride in having some of the best military forces in the world, despite their small numbers.
- A significant example was the Siege of Tobruk, where 14,000 Australian troops held off the Afrika Korps war machine led by Erwin Rommel, equipped and prepared for an eight-week period between reinforcement, held Tobruk for eight months, not only losing very few troops over the time, but actually bolstering their defences by chasing down enemy tanks on foot, blowing them up, then salvaging their weapons, ammunition, and food from enemy incursions.
- Further, when leading the Afrika Korps (the first real 'tank division' in military history, after being deflected by an ANZAC infantry unit, none other than Erwin Rommel was quoted to say: "If I had to take hell, I would use the Australians to take it and the New Zealanders to hold it."
- The term "Stormtrooper" was coined during World War I, where it was actually used by Kaiser Wilhelm II to describe the Canadian forces.
- But seriously, the United States (or its immediate predecessor colonies) has had a military with a long and successful record of invading and defeating other nations... with one rather significant exception.
- A rather significant exception? Which one?
- The first invasion of Canada during the American Revolution failed only because Montreal fell too quickly. The portion of the army intended to take Quebec (the only other important Canadian city at that time) was outpaced by the swarm of retreating troops, and lost the advantage of surprise.
- Most Western militaries can fit this, as they can go from explosively dismantling the place with advanced weaponry, to building schools and handing out candy to kids, and back to the dismantling if provoked.
- German counter-terrorism unit GSG 9 was created in 1973 in response to the complete failure of german police at the olympic games hostage situation in Munich the previous year. In 30 years of service they completed over 1,500 missions, with weapons being fired only during five of them.
- During their very first mission in 1977 they ended a plane hijacking with only one officer and one hostage wounded.
- The Terrorists were armed with pistols and handgrenades, were ready to murder the hostages any minute, and even then the GSG 9 took one of the 3 Terrorists alive.
- The Icelandic Víkingasveitin or "the Viking squad" in English, has never had to take a human life in the application of their duties, but have halted hijacked airliners, fought eco-terrorist and regularly train with GSG 9, Norwegian Delta's, and the S.A.S.
- Does anybody else notice that some serious martial artists tend to be pretty swell guys? Guys like Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, and Chuck Norris seem like they could be pals with anyone, even you and me. Bruce was also a fighting man-god who believed the first rule of self defense is that there are no rules, and recommends going for the eyes and groin whenever possible, among other things. Jackie could grab the nearest lampshade and toilet brush and use them to ruin your day in ways you'd rather not even imagine, let alone remember afterward. And Chuck... well, we all know about Chuck.
- Ironically, Chuck Norris has been described as a hugely arrogant asshole by those working with him.
- Every one of the multiple martial arts this troper has has trained in, or seen actual training occur in encourages one to be emotionally and mentally balanced. The best outcome of all is for conflict to never reach the point of violence in the first place. If violence must occur, then do what it takes to get out of it alive. That might involve removing your opponent's ability to breath, or receive blood to their brain, or their ability to stand, or throw strikes. Then again, it might just involve throwing them, then running the other direction, if you can get away with it. In fact, in some martial arts there are some honors that one can only receive after having attempted to diffuse a situation multiple times, in order to seek peace. The majority of martial arts emphasize defense over offense, because many martial artists are just nice guy's that would rather no one get hurt - if possible.
- This troper would like to nominate krav maga as an exception: from what I gather, krav maga mainly trains the berzerk button. Maybe it's just a little too young to have developped the mental mindframe, though.
- Pretty much.
- The martial art Aikido has been developed by a pacifist and consists mostly of moves to deflect attacks and restrain attackers. By using an attackers strength and momentum against him, it doesn't require much strength or weight. It is however very simple to use a restraining technique to break arms and hands, or use a deflecting technique to smash an attacker to the ground with his head first.
- The Winter War between Finland and the Soviet Union in 1939-1940. The big, bad Soviet Union? 1 million men and 6 thousand tanks. The Finnish? 250,000 men, 30 tanks, and
Christopher Lee Simo Häyhä. The winner? Well, it is Christopher Lee Simo Häyhä. Kinda hard to go up against that.
- While it's hard to say that the Russians didn't lose here (horrific casualties,) the Finns didn't win. Stalin (being Stalin) kept piling up bodies against the Mannerheim Line until they were about to break through; the Finns were forced to sue for peace and hand over territory... which they took back during Operation Barbarossa, while allied with Nazi Germany... but wisely refused to go any further into Russia.
- So we'll call it a stalemate. Still shows Finland is not to be fucked with easily.
- It's not a stalemate if you lose and Finland definitely lost.
- Say that in Finland and be laughed at. Say it again and some nice, quiet Finn will have a nice chat with you out back. If Finland lost she would have suffered the same fate as Poland or the Baltic countries. Also, if Finland had lost there wouldn't be a need for Russia trying to beat them once more, would it?
- It was military dfeat to Finland. It was a moral victory. Like Soviet leadership put it:
- ->Nikita Khrushchev:"In our war against the Finns we could choose the location of the war and the date of its start. In number we were superior to the enemy, we had enough time to get ready for the operation. But on these most favourable terms we could only win through huge difficulties and incredibly great losses. In fact this victory was a moral defeat. Our people certainly never got knowledge of it because we never told them the truth."
- "O lord, deliver us from the Finns..."
- No mention of the playful, boyish, merry, little Nepali, and their playful, boyish, merry way of dissecting the Queen's Enemies with their merry little kukris?
- Technically, the gurkhas rarely use their Kukris for actual combat, it is more commonly used as a machete or a utility tool.
- Of course. The modern world lacks a true sense of artistry about killing. But there's more then enough stories about it and it's part of the tradition.
- Pick a school shooting, any school shooting, from Columbine to Virgina Tech. Invariably, the murderer(s) will be described as quiet guys whom no one would ever suspect of committing such a crime.
- Actually, that's pretty much how ANY murderer is described. Psychopaths do not act crazy (perhaps a little 'off') until they are finally pushed past their limits. Even seemingly normal people acting out of anger or revenge do not show why it's never a good idea to mess with them until it's too late.
- It's also worth considering that, perhaps, this is because the ones that you wouldsuspect get locked up somewhere before they can go this far. The ones who are free to do such things are, if this is the case, the ones who have not given reason to be suspected of such tendencies. That, and a lot of these guys are described as being seriously disturbed, they just don't fit the "violent pyscho" image.
- Possibly also to do with people not wanting to deal with the idea that people can get (potentially) violent and ignore, deny, or reframe certain warning signs until something happens that can no longer be ignored. This might also explain why, after a familial murder-suicide case, all the neighbours seems completely surprised that something like that happened in their friendly, quiet neighbourhood even though indications of things being not quite right in that family were present well before.
- George Carlin said that the tendancy of people to say "It's the quiet ones you gotta watch", seemed, to him, "like a very dangerous assumption."
"I will bet you anything that while you're watching a quiet one, a noisy one will fucking kill you! Suppose you're in a bar and one guy's sitting over on the side reading a book, not bothering anybody; another guy's standing up at the front with a machete, banging it on the bar, saying "I'll kill the next motherfucker who comes in here!" Who ya gonna watch?"
Silly George you have to watch the quiet ones, because you can hear the noisy ones coming.
- Take a look at dear little lovable Fido. He is still a WOLF underneath.
- And don't forget that cute miniature lion playing with the catnip mousie.
- CS Lewis once pointed out that the ideal Medieval knight was "Fierce in the field and meek in the hall." Of course it really didn't come out that way but that is why we call them ideals.
- The Shaolin Monks are a prime example of this trope; they were peaceful till a group of bandits pushed them to the edge. Then they developed shaolin and tested it out on said bandits.
- Reinhard Heydrich was born to artistic parents, and was by all accounts a shy, sensitive child. His mildly Semitic features did not go down well in early-20th century Germany, and he was frequently bullied as a child. From young adulthood onwards he transformed himself into a dashing naval officer and womaniser, and later climbed the ranks of Hitler's SS, becoming the kind of Nazi official that Nazi officials were frightened of. The general competence of "the blond beast" gave the Allies nightmares that he might succeed Hitler. Upon his assassination in 1942 the world sighed with relief; all except for the populations of the Czech villages of Lidice and Ležáky, who were murdered in reprisal. "The towns were burned and the ruins leveled."
- Many sports journalists say that of all the athletes they interact with, hockey players are the nicest. These are the same athletes that seem to want to send each other's teeth into the 20th row.
- Steve Irwin. One of the nicest guys you could ever hope to have met, but you did not ever brag about abusing animals in his hearing distance, 'ever'.
- Members of the Religious Society of Friends (more often known as Quakers) are defined (in part) by their testimony against war. You'd imagine they'd be the nicest, kindest, most docile and timid opponents you'd meet. But some Quakers have been pushed too far, and have taken up the sword, sometimes with spectacular results.
- Gen. Nathaniel Greene was, by the end of the Revolutionary War, second only to George Washington on the roster of American Generals. Leading troops in almost every major victory and defeat under Washington in the northern theater, Greene was sent to command the Southern army towards the end of the war. There he "lost" three battles in a row, all Pyrrhic victories for the British. They had to give up Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina to the Americans. A Quaker ended up forcing the British to evacuate the lower half of their American colonies. Beware the Nice Ones, yes indeed.
- Edwin Stanton was a Quaker, and Abraham Lincoln's Secretary of War. A capable administrator, unfailingly honest, ... and a SCARY sonufabitch if you were to run afoul of him. Spies and subversives were treated ... harshly.
- Gen. Isaac Peace Rodman joined the Union Army at he start of the Civil War, a lowly captian. One year and three months later, he died commanding a division of soldiers (a very speedy advancement of four ranks due to his competance and bravery), at the Battle of Antietam.
- Gen. Smedley Butler won two Medals of Honor. Fought in China. Fought in Mexico. Fought in Central America. Fought in Haiti. Fought in WWI. Fought mobsters in Philadelphia as Director of Public Safety. Then he wrote a book in the 30's about how he hated fighting, called "War Is A Racket" (essentially picking a public relations fight with Wall Street, Big Oil, and Big Banks). There's no doubt he hated fighting ... but neither is there any doubt that he was really good at it, no matter who the opponent.
- All of the above came about when individual Quakers got pushed to violence. The group as a whole, while remaining nonviolent, also has a pretty impressive track record when pushed too far: helped end slavery (John Woolman), taught Martin Luther King how to win a fight without shooting (Bayard Rustin), and got women the right to vote (Lucretia Mott and Susan B. Anthony). Basically if you make them angry, you'll probably survive... but you'll probably still lose eventually.
- Of course, Nixon was a Quaker too, and he was never a nice person at all.
- Consider these when next opposed with a Quaker. They're not always the happy, kindly gent on the oatmeal drum.
- Ah...isn't this cute.
http://historylink101.com/ww2_color/PicturesofAnimalsinWorldWa/IMG_2315.html
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