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"Come on, fight back! How far will you carry this silly chivalry? 'Cause this dark damsel is not impressed!"
"Oh dear... I think I broke a nail on your ribcage."
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. 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, Black Magician 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.
- Revy from Black Lagoon is an Anti Hero (or quite possibly a Heroic Sociopath) version of this.
- Come to think of it,
every major female character who can kick ass every major female character in Roanapur is a variant of this theme.
- Hibari Ginza from Speed Grapher.
- Nena Trinity from Gundam 00, though she's more of a Dark Female Gundam Pilot.
- Riding a Gundam to fight does qualify her. She's not doing a good job in the Action part, though nowhere in the status of Faux Dark Action Girl (nobody says she's top class). But this may change in the 2nd season...
- Also, we may be able to include Soma Peiris ( or better said, Marie Parfasy) and maybe Louise Halevy (if she manages to catch up with the others) from second season on.
Comic Book
- Lady Shiva is generally regarded as the deadliest martial artist in The DCU.
- 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.
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.
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 (who didn't get along well even before Faith did a Face Heel Turn, and definitely didn't afterward) 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.
- 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.
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...
- 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.
- 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.
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.
- Avatar The Last Airbender: Azula, as a charismatic and powerful leader, combines this trope with Magnificent Bitch. And then she went insane.
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