Basic Trope: A peaceful, mild or otherwise seemingly harmless character is capable of deadly anger or surprisingly effective retribution if sufficiently provoked.
- Straight: After experiencing a prolonged period of bullying and torture at the hands of Emperor Evulz, the mild-mannered Bob snaps and beats the shit out of Evulz, shocking and terrifying the villain.
- Exaggerated:
- After being bullied by Evulz, Bob, the most loving and compassionate person around, goes apeshit and constructs a death ray, sending Evulz's home town back to the Stone Age from orbit.
- Bob, who up until that moment was the nicest man in the world and comparisons to Fred Rogers usually ended with Rogers being the one losing, grabs a machine gun and goes on a day-long killing spree that makes every single massacre and murder case in American history combined look like a kid's film. Evulz really shouldn't have killed Bob's dog.
- Good Is Not Soft
- Downplayed: The bullying by Evulz causes Bob to lash out in anger and, although his response is relatively mild compared to what it could be, it is equally terrifying to the villain because Bob is normally so mild-mannered.
- Justified:
- Although Evulz isn't aware of this, Bob is actually the alter-ego of a superhero with devastatingly effective combat skills.
- Bob is very nice, but he also knows a good deal of martial arts. He keeps from using it most of the time because he doesn't feel the need to, but when pushed, he has no problem using very, very painful moves against the subject of his ire.
- Bob is usually very nice but becomes a Papa Wolf when his loved ones are threatened.
- Bob controls himself to avoid fights whenever possible, so when his self-control finally snaps, things get messy.
- Bob lives in a Crapsack World, and knows full well evil people tend to see Nice Guy as "Guy I can take advantage of/kill easily", and thus packs a Hand Cannon and isn't afraid to use it.
- Inverted:
- Bob, a bullying blow-hard, is in fact incapable of fighting for himself if provoked. Miles Gloriosus, really.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold
- Drake an easily angered Blood Knight of all people, personally saved the surviving orphans after the bombing including giving enough blood to pass out to save the last one revealing him to be more Hot-Blooded if anything.
- Subverted:
- After being bullied by Evulz, Bob snaps and fights back... only to be easily floored by Evulz.
- After being bullied by Evulz, Bob starts to show rage... but then calms down, shakes his head and refuses to fight.
- Alternately, Tsundere Alice has been giving Bob a hard time for a long time, it's been building up, he's ONE snarky comment or putdown away from snapping. Alice addresses him, he answers "what do you want?" in a Tranquil Fury voice with one eye twitching. Alice, oblivious to this, thanks Bob for putting up with her and apologizes for how difficult she's been and says that Bob is the best friend she's ever had. All that rage is suddenly diffused and they share Crowning Moment Of Heart Warming.
- Doubly Subverted:
- ... which was all part of Bob's cunning plan to lull Evulz into a false sense of security so that Bob could enact his revenge later and in a more devastating fashion than merely getting beaten up.
- After being bullied by Evulz, Bob shows signs of snapping... but then calms down. Then, he quietly and efficiently beats seven shades of hell out of Evulz.
- Tsundere Alice goes back to her old ways and the rage builds up, this time she delivers the rant-inducing slight, Bob snaps with a huge Did You Think I Can't Feel? speech, Alice feels like fifty shades of crap and vows to do a better job of being a good friend. Alternatively, he tells her to Talk to the Fist and decks her with one clean punch.
- Parodied: The slight that Bob is reacting to is ludicrously trivial and his retribution drastically over-the-top.
- Zig Zagged: Pacifist Bob visibly restrains himself from going berserk against Evulz and his minions. Then the dam breaks and he starts ripping through the Mooks, only for Evulz to kill him easily.
- Averted: Bob simply resigns himself to the bullying and lets it continue.
- Enforced: "We have to show that just because Bob is nice, he's not a complete weakling; otherwise people will be turned off from him. Let's show him beating up a bullying villain to prove the point."
- Lampshaded: "All right, Evulz — this time, you've pushed me too far!"
- Invoked:
- Bob is an Actual Pacifist and Evulz intentionally pushes Bob to his breaking point to prove he's not as unflappable as he thinks he is.
- Bob had a Hair-Trigger Temper that he repressed after it hurt people he cared about. If something is bad enough to make him snap he snaps hard.
- Exploited: Alex purposefully gets Bob worked up about Evulz's crimes so that Bob will snap and take down Evulz, since Alex can't.
- Defied:
- Bob is an Actual Pacifist, and when he realizes that he is about to snap he forces himself to turn the other cheek.
- Evulz sees the signs that Bob is about to snap and stops torturing him so that he won't quite get angry enough to take him down.
- "Whatever the hell you're going to do, you better believe I can pay you back double." Bob decides not to call Evulz' bluff and calms down.
- Evulz' first step is to tear Bob apart to the point of "yodeling potato". Bob can be nice, Bob can be angry, but Bob can't do more than scream.
- Evulz sees Bob getting upset and immediately kills him.
- Discussed: "Funny how it's the nice ones who turn into badasses when they're pushed too far."
- Conversed: "Are these characters crazy? You never pick on the nice guy! They're always secretly capable of kicking your ass and if you provoke him, that's just what he'll do!"
- Deconstructed:
- In lowering himself to Evulz's level and fighting him on his terms, Bob has lost the moral high ground and has thus lost anyway or proven himself to be even worse than Evulz.
- Since Bob is not used to practicing violent or ruthless actions, his rage is mostly impotent compared to someone who lives by violence and ruthlessness. His outburst ends up just getting him killed.
- Being good at combat and ruthlessness and being a good person most definitely do not go hand in hand, no matter how desperate and upset they are. Bob's little act of superhuman badassery can only mean one thing: that him being a good guy, to some degree, no matter how small, is just an act. Absolute worst case scenario, the "good guy" act is a Mask of Sanity, and it just cracked…
- Reconstructed:
- However, sometimes we must lower ourselves to defend ourselves from threats.
- Bob acknowledges the possibility of being forced to resort to violence and trains his mind and body to ready them both for fighting, enabling him to overcome his target. It helps that his outburst is levelled against someone who is more used to dealing with dirty tricks than fisticuffs.
- Bob by not being used to violent and ruthless actions means his form throws off Evulz's expectations.
- Played For Laughs: Bob has zero fighting abilities and looks ridiculous as he goes after his tormentors, putting Evulz on the ground through sheer accident and/or because Evulz is laughing too hard to fight back.
- Played For Drama: Bob, trembling, waits until Evulz's back is turned. Bob pulls out a clasp-knife and stabs Evulz until the blade breaks off in the villain's spine. He is chilled by the experience, as are his friends.
- Played For Horror: Bob kills Evulz, Evulz's organization, all of their bloodlines, and takes over whatever remains. And it's left in the air whether or not his "nice" persona has become a brittle facade.
- Implied: Alice states that Bob was the one responsible for Evulz's end. It is unclear how he did it and the circumstances.
Could you head back to Beware the Nice Ones, please? This page is starting to annoy me, and you wouldn't like me when I'm ang-I mean, annoyed.
