Basic Trope: The character is nice and kind to everyone except for those who are evil.
- Straight: Bob is a Nice Guy towards most people, but won't go easy on evildoers.
- Exaggerated:
- Bob is nigh-messianic around his friends, but is so brutal towards bad guys of all types that they all see him as The Dreaded.
- Bob is the most virtuous, incorruptible, and idealistic hero everyone desires to be, but he will not hesitate to harshly punish anyone who has done any kind of wrongdoing, even if they're the ones he protects. It's so serious that he often comes across as Good Is Not Nice.
- Bob is ultimately good, but will punish those who kill, steal, rape, and illegally download music albums.
- Downplayed:
- Even though Bob is usually merciful towards his enemies, he will make an exception for those who are scumbag at best.
- Bob doesn't want to harm his enemies, but that doesn't mean he doesn't want them to be justly punished for their misdeeds.
- While Bob has his flaws, he's a Jerk with a Heart of Gold who will attack those who have harmed his loved ones.
- Bob is nice to everyone he meets, but will stand firm against Jerkasses and bullies.
- Beware the Nice Ones.
- Justified:
- The fact that Bob cares so much about his friends makes him extremely protective of them.
- Bob grew up in a rough neighborhood, so he had to learn to fight to protect himself and the innocent from thugs.
- Bob has strong morals and believes that those who don't have them are most likely to commit evil acts.
- It is ultimately quite hard to do good effectively, if you are unable or unwilling to back up your noble intentions with force, in the case push comes to shove.
- Inverted:
- Extreme Doormat
- Stupid Good
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold
- Bob is a Jerkass to his friends, but is friendly and kind to his enemies.
- Good Is Impotent
- Alternatively, the villain is an Actual Pacifist.
- Or the villain is an Affably Evil Technical Pacifist who makes an exception for heroes.
- Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work
- Subverted:
- Before he goes off to face Emperor Evulz, Bob explains to his team in great detail how he plans to punish him. When he finally confronts him, he instead tries to talk him down.
- Emperor Evulz is at the mercy of Bob and waits for him to do away with him, but Bob changes his mind and extends his hand to Evulz, offering him a chance for redemption.
- Bob shows mercy to his loved ones and is shown reluctantly giving them second chance after chance.
- Double Subverted:
- When the attempt fails, it turns out Bob is willing to use violence as a last resort, and does not hold back in a fight.
- Evulz rejected the offer, and so Bob brutally kills him since he isn't willing to repent.
- When it looks like Bob is about to make a Face–Heel Turn because of his closest friend, he instead swiftly beats them down and announces that they have gone too far.
- Parodied:
- Bob may be the nicest person in Troperville, but he won't tolerate anyone who has poked the poodle.
- Bob may be empathetic to people's needs but is willing to kill those who would ever smoke pot because of Drugs Are Bad.
- Zig Zagged: Bob uses violence to fight off the villains to protect his loved ones, but realizes that he's too violent, so he becomes the peacemaker. However, that didn't work, so he resorts to violence again just until one of his friends called him out for going too far.
- Averted: Bob uses reason instead of violence.
- Enforced: "We don't want yet another Anti-Hero, but we do want a badass. Let's make the main character a Nice Guy who can be scary when pushed too far."
- Lampshaded: "Bob may be a good guy, but you really don't want to piss him off."
- Invoked: "I'll help you kill your enemy. Later we'll go for drinks and a movie, my treat. Hurt the innocents and I'll hurt you. Okay?"
- Exploited: Emperor Evulz makes Bob a brutal fighter even for a good guy just so he can have a Worthy Opponent.
- Implied: Bob is the nicest guy on the cast, but there is a minor Running Gag of people reacting to him as is he was The Dreaded for some reason…
- Defied:
- Bob fears becoming a Knight Templar, so he decides to be merciful.
- Bob is ordered to be "soft", an order enforced by any means necessary by his employers because the rules of engagement between good and evil require for both sides to not do the kind of stupid things that may occur if/when Bob decides to "not be soft" to his enemies.
- Discussed: "Uuugh... that's the last time I underestimate the friendly and upstanding types..." -spits out tooth-
- Conversed: "I'd love to be Bob's friend if he was a real person, but I'd hate to be his enemy."
- Deconstructed:
- Bob eventually jumps off the slippery slope and becomes a vicious Knight Templar.
- One day, he kicks the wrong dog, because he accepts such methods.
- Bob has always believed there are only good and bad people around the world, and anyone who does not abide by society's customs deserves no other form of mercy than violence. One day he overhears a conversation from a group of locals who currently fight for the Big Bad and realized that many of them were simply ordinary people with varying reasons on why they fight....Bob then begins to question whether he's still doing the right thing.
- Emperor Evulz throws a "Not So Different" Remark at Bob, and then subsequently congratulates him on such harsh methods. Bob starts to wonder if what Evulz said is really true.
- Bob eventually beats Emperor Evulz right to the point that he becomes desperate, and in his desperation, he will do something that Bob will forever regret.
- Bob may be a genuinely Nice Guy, but he's always incredibly unforgiving towards his enemies, even those who are truly remorseful and wish to become better people. Bob's unforgiving approach stirs fear in the populace.
- Whenever Bob decides to stop being soft, he unfortunately trades it off with continuously jumping the gun and acting too quickly for people to warn him about things that had solutions he just ripped off everybody's hands which leads to continuous chaos. For further deconstruction points, Bob probably heard some variation of "good men are those who never hesitate" speech from an Old Soldier and learned the wrong lesson.
- No matter how soft or not soft Bob is, Evulz shall never be afraid of him. If Bob decides not to kill him, then that means Evulz shall always survive to scheme another day. If Bob decides to kill him, then, well, he is going to be dead anyway, so why bother?
- Reconstructed:
- Bob makes it a point to only use violence when there is no other way to resolve a conflict.
- But since he is a Technical Pacifist, it is all repairable. He proceeds to make up for what he did.
- But he then realizes that he can't let his kindness get in the way of serving the greater good and while he will not enjoy using violence on those who break the law, he must do it anyway.
- Bob tells Emperor Evulz to put a sock in it, stating that while his methods are usually violent, his noble intentions aren't comparable in the least to those of an Evil Overlord, and that he doesn't take harming others lightly, fighting only when it is unavoidable.
- Bob decides to temper his lack of forgiveness and save it for the truly depraved amongst his enemies.
- Played For Laughs: Bob is The Comically Serious.
- Played For Drama: Bob tends to be a violent jerk, but is generally considered to be the good guy.
- Played For Horror: Bob is a hyper-violent and hyper-brutal Knight Templar and tends to leave huge body counts behind him.
- Plotted A Good Waste: Bob is the Deliberately Bad Example to Jim, who is a Sheep in Sheep's Clothing Nice Guy who solves all of his problems through pacifistic, uplifting methods. Even "not soft" as in "hold fast against adversity" is avoided, because Jim is a Lovable Coward. Even if it's partially through sheer dumb luck, Jim has achieved much more in terms of solving the plot's conflicts than Bob.
Here's the link to Good Is Not Soft. Just don't harm the innocents while you're there or I will hurt you. That's just me being nice.
