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Girls just wanna have fun.
"Come on, fight back! How far will you carry this silly chivalry? 'Cause this dark damsel is not impressed!"
Those stupid boys and their ridiculous little games. What's a girl to do? Well, if you're this girl, most likely kick their asses.
The villainous version of the Action Girl. Likes dressing in black and keeping her nails particularly long and sharp. A popular combination with The Baroness, but usually not The Vamp or the Femme Fatale, since she prefers to pummel The Hero to a bloody pulp instead of seducing him, but there are certainly exceptions, and these exceptions can be incredibly dangerous.
She's usually someone's Evil Counterpart. She tends to enjoy beating on tougher-looking characters, and a man's refusal to fight back tends to annoy her.
You'd think that this would be the point where the Action Girl and the Dark Magical Girl intersect. Go on, keep thinking that way. We'll see how long you live. Hang on, let me get my stopwatch.
The Dark Action Girl is the Dark Magical Girl's polar opposite, fiercely independent, cruelly carefree, and rarely interested in making friends. Just as the Dark Magical Girl almost always does a Heel Face Turn, the Dark Action Girl almost never does. If she is brought over to the side of good, even if only for an episode, expect her to be hesitant about it at best - and if she stays, she'll remain more standoffish and cynical than the rest of the nakama or the Five Man Band. Typically the Dark Action Girl will only aid the Action Girl against another villain because she considers herself the only one allowed to defeat her.
If The Messiah offers her friendship, expect her to take it as an insult. The Dark Action Girl is generally immune, or at least resistant, to The Power Of Friendship. The Power Of Love can soften her up sometimes, but it's a crapshoot; the foolish boy could just as easily wind up getting used and discarded, rejected violently, or just plain killed for his trouble.
For some reason, while heroic Action Girls can fail to live up to their reputation, you will never find a Faux Dark Action Girl. This is probably because no matter what standards the decade or culture sets for women, villains can break those standards anyway.
For some people, a major source of Fetish Fuel.
Compare Classy Cat Burglar, Dark Magical Girl, and Dark Chick.
Action Girl + Dark Action Girl = Cat Fight.
Examples
Anime and Manga
- LadyDevimon from Digimon Adventure was thrown in, apparently at the last minute, as one of these. The only reason for this, however, appeared to be to set up an Evil Counterpart with whom Angewomon could have a Cat Fight, complete with slapping and hair-pulling. They even brought her back in Digimon Adventure 02 just to repeat the process.
- Karinka from Steel Angel Kurumi toes the line. She beats the living hell out of another main character then crucifies them, and lives primarily so she can destroy the main character and steal her boyfriend. Oh, yeah, she cusses like a sailor, too.
- A brief glimpse of Caerula Sanguis's distant past in Volume 9 of Battle Angel Alita: Last Order shows that when she was part of the Chinese Triads, she was very much an example of this trope. After meeting Victor Byron, however, she softens a little, softening further after meeting John Farrell in Volume 8 to the point that she became something of the Hero Secret Service , at first against Victor to protect John Farrell's grandson, Arthur, eventually extending her protection to the whole of humanity.
- Adiane from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.
- Gretel of Otogi Juushi Akazukin.
- Naruto has a load of bait-and-switch Dark Action Girls who never quite live up to their initial posturing or pull whiplash-inducing High Heel Face Turns, but for this troper's money the standout is Tayuya, the flute-playing, Cluster F Bomb-dropping genjutsu expert of the Sound Four, who easily cows her Ax Crazy coworkers, punches out the eponymous hero, and demonstrates perhaps better than anyone in the series so far save Uchiha Itachi why genjutsu is NOT the "soft" one of the three main ninja skill sets. She then goes toe to toe with Shikamaru, the smartest guy in the whole series, and proceeds to back him into a corner and break his nigh-unbreakable binding jutsu with sheer brute force and bloody-mindedness. The only thing that stops her is having an entire forest dropped on her courtesy of Temari, a Badass Action Girl whose idea of a "cat fight" is breaking her opponent's spine and then tossing them across the room.
- Revy from Black Lagoon is an Anti Hero (or quite possibly a Heroic Sociopath) version of this.
- Balalaika was also one before she graduated to The Baroness.
- Come to think of it, every major female character in Roanapur is a variant of this theme.
- You know a show has lots of Dark Action Girls when the Heroic Sociopath Revy is outdarked by both Balalaika and especially Roberta.
- Hibari Ginza from Speed Grapher.
- Nena Trinity from Gundam 00, though she's more of a Dark Female Gundam Pilot.
- Considering that Nena has only actually been able to kill stationary (like the wedding) or otherwise helpless (like Wang's shuttle) targets, she could actually qualify as a Faux Action Girl rather than a Dark Action Girl. The fact that Louise eventually killed her in a brutally one sided fight certainly didn't help matters.
- Also, we may be able to include Soma Peries and maybe Louise Halevy (if she manages to catch up with the others) from second season on.
- After killing Nena in episode 21, Louise has caught up and very much counts.
- Hilling Care definitely qualifies for this, both inside and outside of a mobile suit. And even though she technically lost against the 00 Raiser, she did put up a spectacular fight.
- Although Rizelle of Chrono Crusade prefers to use her powers to get other people to do her dirty work for her, when confronted by Rosette she proves herself to be one of these, using her marionette strings and Femme Fatalons to cause a massive amount of clothing damage to Rosette in the process.
- Several female arrancars from Bleach, the biggest examples being Halibel and her Amazon Brigade (Apache, Mila Rose and Sun-Sun) as well as Cirucci Thunderwitch.
- Gun X Sword's Fasalina, who; unlike the only other girl in her group Melissa, who was just merely confused; fully embraced the methods of The Claw and most of the time puts up a damn good fight against the heroes.
- Kagura from Inu Yasha.
Comic Book
- Lady Shiva is generally regarded as the deadliest martial artist in The DCU.
- Rose Wilson aka Ravager of the Teen Titans is the most badass girl they've had.
- Andrea Beaumont from Batman: Mask of the Phantasm combines this trope with being a Femme Fatale.
- Y The Last Man, thanks to the premise, has several examples as villains. Most notably, there's Alter and her Amazon Brigade, the (unrelated) Daughters of the Amazon, Toyota, and Hero who makes the rare Heel Face Turn.
- Scandal from Villains United and Secret Six first appears to be simply a Middle Management Mook. However, she's shown to be extremely dangerous in combat, quite possibly insane, and very hard to kill (and it's revealed that her father is the immortal supervillain Vandal Savage).
- Black Cat the trope namer of Spider-Man's love interest. Her Heel Face Turn is often a Xanatos Gambit, her betrayals less an indication of her turn than the prime motivator all along. Though she doesn't need love in her life, she can appreciate it when it's there and remember it fondly after abandoning it, which is why she doesn't return to the Heel Face Revolving Door by whacking the Hero.
- Destrii, from the Doctor Who Magazine comic. She begins a Heel Face Turn after being beaten to a pulp by her father figure, the Big Bad, for daring to side with the Doctor.
Film
Literature
- Bellatrix Lestrange of Harry Potter
- Zandramas in David Eddings's Malloreon fits this role perfectly, right down to being an evil counter to Polgara.
- Protagonist example who is still "Dark": Lale of The Assassins Of Tamurin
- Hester Shaw in Mortal Engines becomes a completely merciless killer.
- Angelina, supposedly reformed murderess turned Special Corp agent/wife of 'Slippery Jim' DiGritz. Always carries an arsenal of lethal weaponry on her person, and has the ability to produce a .75 calibre recoilless from Hammer Space whenever she thinks her husband is getting too slippery for her taste. Supposedly her more psychotic impulses have been removed by the psych-techs, but Jim frequently has to restrain her natural enthusiasm for killing and torture.
- Asajj Ventress, Count Dooku's main follower...cruel, skilled, and a major threat, with a tendency to pull a Not Quite Dead every time she seems defeated.
- Arya Stark of A Song Of Ice And Fire is one, with hints of outright Heroic Sociopath. She has a list of people who have wronged her, and who she fully intends to kill. She's already killed some of them, and indirectly caused the deaths of others. She's recently joined a death-worshiping assassin's guild. Oh yeah, and she's about twelve years old.
Live Action TV
- Sarah Corvis in the Bionic Woman reboot is to be a prime example of the type. She teaches the Action Girl protagonist just so that she can fight later. Sarah also seems to like to drop hints, though it's been shown she does have a motivating romantic interest.
- Faith on Buffy The Vampire Slayer is half this, half Dark Magical Girl. Her abilities are action-based, not magical, and the Cat Fights between Buffy and Faith were adrenaline-spiked highlights among the series' many action sequences. Directors, stunt directors, actresses, and stunt doubles always seemed to go all out whenever one of these scenes came up. At the same time, her issues are much more of the DMG vein, and she is eventually redeemed DMG-style in a two-part episode of Angel. However, even after Faith returns and joins up with Buffy, the two constantly butt heads, often violently.
- Don't forget Darla. While in flashbacks she's less action and more just plain evil, during the first season she was pretty much The Master's Dragon, that is, until she died.
- Callisto, Xena's Evil Counterpart from Xena Warrior Princess. She actually does pull a Heel Face Turn late in the show's run, actually.
- It basically takes divine intervention, though.
- Ebony of The Tribe. She was also The Baroness, and a female Magnificent Bastard.
- Gretchen Morgan from Prison Break. Really, dark action girl. Do not mess with her.
- Ana Espinosa from Alias
Videogame
- Rider of Fate/stay night embraces this image, although she does show a nice side — how much depends on the scenario.
- Larxene of the Kingdom Hearts series certainly fits the bill. She's well aware of it, too - her personal title is "The Savage Nymph", and she delights in taunting the heroes with "clues" that turn out to be completely fake. Not to mention in RE:Co M she manages to martial-arts kick Sora to the ground...TWICE.
- Sonia, Ursula and Limstella in Fire Emblem 7. And definitely Petrine from Fire Emblem 9.
- Of course, whether Limstella has a gender is debatable...
- If you're referring to the fact that she's one of Nergal's morphs, then you'd have to say the same thing about Sonia, although Sonia was specifically created to be The Vamp.
- Speed Buster, the not-so-nice old lady with a BFG from No More Heroes, is probably what happens when the Dark Action Girl survives into her 70s.
- In fact, every female opponent in No More Heroes probably qualifies under this trope, especially Bad Girl.
- After being killed, corrupted and resurrected in undeath, Sylvanas Windrunner slips easily into this role. Unusually, she's often portrayed with sympathy (depending on your interpretation she could easily be considered a protagonist), and actually doesn't like her new role very much. Indeed, the things that seems 'dark' about her seems to be just about her fighting method and her aloof personality, not her goal (which seemed... nice).
- Risky Boots, the villainous pirate captain in the obscure Game Boy Metroidvania Shantae.
- Menardi, from Golden Sun, fits this trope, although it's revealed in the sequel that she and Saturos were actually SAVING the world...after the heroes killed them. (Oops)
Web Comics
- Sal Walters, from It's Walky
 tends to weave in and out of the "dark" portion of Action Girl. She wasn't above opening a can of whupass on her own brother, though.
- Considering that until Agatha freed the other Jaegers, she was doing pretty well holding her own against guards and Othar, Jenka from Girl Genius likely qualifies. Mamma Gkika, being one of the Jager Generals, probably falls somewhere between this and Lady Of War. Von Pinn is just Axe Crazy. And then there's Dupree, who's axe CRAZIER. She routinely attempts to murder entire towns (and, it's implied, only fails because her commanders won't let her) and actively taunts Von Pinn, who can tear Jagers apart with her bare hands.
- Kria, the demon mare of Dan And Mabs Furry Adventures, is the first example this troper has seen of a Dark Action Mom. But given the comic, her appearances are pretty much entirely Villains Out Shopping.
- Hortense in The Adventures Of Dr Mc Ninja .. at least, so far as we know.
- In Blade Of Toshubi Lamika, aka Lady Snow Blood, kind of falls into this trope.
Western Animation
- Shego (pictured) of Kim Possible
- Ravess from Storm Hawks
- Blackarachnia of Transformers: Beast Wars is a bad, bad girl, ready to dish out pain by the bucket at the drop of a hat, as well as a treacherous Femme Fatale when it suits her. These two things, in combination, made her very popular in the fandom. Unlike many, though, she does do a Heel Face Turn in the end, though at first it's just for her own safety.
- Jinx of Teen Titans fits to a T (heh heh heh). She's also the leader of the H.I.V.E F.I.V.E, all male, and the only one with ambition. Her supposed Heel Face Turn was triggered by high ranking villains dismissing her as useless. She has yet to do real heroics, her motivations seem to be simple revenge (and possibly a crush on Kid Flash). Of course, the phrase "Dark Action Girl" really brings Raven to mind...though she's more an example of another trope.
- And let's not forget Blackfire, Starfire's diabolical big sister.
- Avatar The Last Airbender: Azula, as a charismatic and powerful leader, combines this trope with Magnificent Bitch.
- Galatea in Justice League Unlimited's also an Evil Twin.
- Fox from Gargoyles is another HeelFaceTurner, though it doesn't change her personality one iota. Well, except for the Mama Bear thing. Demona also is a candidate, though she's a bit more Ax Crazy than the usual iterations of the trope.
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