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Anime & Manga
This is the enormous tale of a tiny man, from a tiny blue planet on the end of a whirling galaxy. To tell it in full would take until after sunrise...
Whitebeard, I've fought countless battles and received countless scars. But the only one that aches right now is this one. I didn't get these scars on an adventure or in my fight with Hawkeye. The one who gave me this scar is Blackbeard Teach from your crew. And it wasn't because I was careless. Do you understand what I'm saying, Whitebeard?! He laid low and waited for his chance. He didn't even rise up to become a squad leader or make a name for himself. He hid himself behind the giant shadow of Whitebeard! And once he had enough power, he finally made his move. A man like that will never be satisfied. He'll keep aiming for the top with his own will. One day, he will aim for your seat!
— Shanks, One Piece
Comic Books
"My place in the Scarran hierarchy of cruelty was clear. And though Tauza was my guardian, she offered me no protection. I learned that among Scarrans, one is either the hunter... or the prey. At first, all I knew was fear. Fear drove me into the darkness. But as I hid in the shadows, something changed. My fear become fury. My desire for escape... became a dream of revenge. Nothing since then has sated my hunger for vengeance — not the passage of time, nor the bitter fortunes of war. Truth be told, my appetite has only ever grown."
— Scorpius, Farscape: Glorious Basterds
"Imagine being the first one to understand what that monster was going to become. Imagine going step-by-step from diamond magnates to Joker fish to gassing entire buildings to murdering countless families. It must have been like staring into the abyss, Bruce. Realizing this strange crime boss in clown makeup would keep going and adapting until he became something apocalyptic."
— Catwoman, Batman (James Tynion IV) #90
"The Orb. Z-list super villain with an eyeball for a head. The man who just changed the world."
Fan Works
"There was so much I did not know. The world was and is a cruel place. Life was only as precious as one valued it. I would soon discover a terrible fact. Not all changelings are created equal. Not all hives are viewed with the same respect, deserved or otherwise. Not all colonies had equal power. Those who had power ruled over others.
I was born into one of the weaker colonies, despite Mother being the Queen. I would discover, as I grew older, there were only two choices for Lesser changelings. Serve or die. Sometimes, death was the only answer to the question. Those who ruled were not kind. Those who ruled wielded their power without mercy.
I was born a slave."
I was born into one of the weaker colonies, despite Mother being the Queen. I would discover, as I grew older, there were only two choices for Lesser changelings. Serve or die. Sometimes, death was the only answer to the question. Those who ruled were not kind. Those who ruled wielded their power without mercy.
I was born a slave."
— Queen Chrysalis, I, Chrysalis
GA: Wow How Did You Go From Happy Go Lucky Clown To Wild Mood Swinging Threatening Grisly Murder Clown.
— Kanaya Maryam to Gamzee Makara, Cultstuck
"I'm the Magikarp of the humans, destined to be mocked and laughed at until I... That's right, the so-called useless Magikarp evolves into the mighty Gyarados! Gyarados, one of the most feared Pokemon in the world. Gyarados, a Pokemon capable of ending entire civilisations in a single day throughout history. If I'm the Magikarp of the humans, then I can certainly become the Gyarados of the humans!"
— Bill, Twenty Gyarados Bill Gaiden
"You see, the Hellion is one of the oldest patterns in the multiverse: an innocent made monstrous through agony and horror, a harmless nobody that became feared and dreaded throughout the world. How many monsters lurking under the bed started off as the children cowering on top of it, I wonder? Even I began as just another anonymous worker delving through the bowels of the underground, a peasant in service to a king. Patterns repeat and repeat and repeat..."
— Roquat the Red, The Land of What Might-Have-Been
Films — Animation
Mr Incredible: I was wrong to treat you that way. I'm sorry...
Syndrome: See? Now you respect me, because I'm a threat! That’s the way it works. Turns out there are a lot of people, whole countries who want respect. And they’ll pay through the nose to get it.
Syndrome: See? Now you respect me, because I'm a threat! That’s the way it works. Turns out there are a lot of people, whole countries who want respect. And they’ll pay through the nose to get it.
Megamind: Who is this man we've infused with god-like powers?
Minion: Well, sir, his name is Hal Stewart. He's 28 years old, no criminal records... Actually, no records at all. Apparently this man hasn't accomplished anything.
Megamind: Not yet, Minion. Not yet!
Minion: Well, sir, his name is Hal Stewart. He's 28 years old, no criminal records... Actually, no records at all. Apparently this man hasn't accomplished anything.
Megamind: Not yet, Minion. Not yet!
— Megamind
"Little Jack Horner didn't have any magic. He was a pathetic, buttered baker's boy. Little Jack's Dead! I'm BIG Jack Horner!"
Miles: See? No one thinks you're a joke!
The Spot: They won't after this...
The Spot: They won't after this...
Films — Live-Action
"No one cared who I was 'til I put on the mask."
— Bane, The Dark Knight Rises
"Do you know who I was? Nobody. Except on the day after, I was still alive. This nobody had a chance to be somebody."
— Auntie Entity, Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome
Literature
"Once a poor orphan from a starving village, now I stand ready to reshape the global map."
— Scolopendra, Heads You Die
"Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven."
— Satan, Paradise Lost
And hitherto it was his ignorance of Mr. Hyde that had swelled his indignation; now, by a sudden turn, it was his knowledge. It was already bad enough when the name was but a name of which he could learn no more. It was worse when it began to be clothed upon with detestable attributes; and out of the shifting, insubstantial mists that had so long baffled his eye, there leaped the sudden, definite presentment of a fiend.
"I believe in them. I was one of them before I turned tiger. They can all turn uncommon if they're kicked awake like I was."
— Gully Foyle, The Stars My Destination
"I'm not just some Nobody anymore."
— Nobody after discovering he can rewrite himself to be anything he wants, Story Thieves
"Anyone else find it really funny that we're talking about Skitter being powerful like we used to talk about Kaiser and Lung? If you'd told me the gawky bug girl was going to be one of the scariest motherfuckers in town, I wouldn't have believed you."
— Whedon Ripper Fan on an internet message board, Worm
If you look back to the dawn of Bernard's career, there were few hints that he would rise so high. When he first joined the Liberal Party, his local branch was the federal seat of Streeton, in Melbourne's eastern suburbs. Streeton being a safe Liberal electorate, the branch membership boasted some of the party's brightest young talent — but, take my word for it, Bernard wasn't one of them. He was so dry, so dour, so flat, that the only role anyone could see for him was as branch treasurer. And as branch treasurer he remained, apparently content, working away quietly at the books for nearly ten years. Hardly a stellar beginning.
Still, it was a fatal appointment on the part of his colleagues. You don't give a devious operator like Bernard any sort of position — however mundane it might appear — without grave risk. Especially an administration position, because it's in the details that real power often lies.
Still, it was a fatal appointment on the part of his colleagues. You don't give a devious operator like Bernard any sort of position — however mundane it might appear — without grave risk. Especially an administration position, because it's in the details that real power often lies.
— Underground, by Andrew McGahan
Marcus Duprey was born on Bubble Day, in the small town of Hartshaw, Maine, sometime during the Earth's last sixteen minutes of starlight. At what age he began to attach significance to this fact is anybody's guess; Duprey himself isn't telling, and his parents, his grandparents, his aunts, uncles, his cousins, most of his teachers and most of his peers all died together on his twentieth birthday, which he celebrated by introducing toxic bacteria into the Hartshaw water supply. His third grade teachers, lucky enough to have moved out of town, could scarcely remember him. Surviving ex-classmates described him as quiet and slightly aloof, but not studious and not introverted enough to have attracted ridicule. Charismatic? Influential? A born leader? A prophet? No.
"That day he began his unbroken reign of more than three hundred years. At the age of fourteen he had already created the system of magic that we employ today. Or rather, that we would employ if we could; most of what he knew we have forgotten. His was a perfect blending of fairy magic and human organization — their powers were wedded to his own terrifying purposefulness.
There is no reason that we know of to explain why one stolen Christian child should suddenly emerge the greatest magician of any age. Other children, both before and since, have been held captive in the borderlands of Faerie, but none other ever profited from the experience in the way he did. By comparison with his achievements, all our efforts seem trivial, insignificant."
There is no reason that we know of to explain why one stolen Christian child should suddenly emerge the greatest magician of any age. Other children, both before and since, have been held captive in the borderlands of Faerie, but none other ever profited from the experience in the way he did. By comparison with his achievements, all our efforts seem trivial, insignificant."
— Jonathan Strange, on John Uskglass a.k.a. The Raven King, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
"This is the girl they keep calling a monster. I want you to keep that firmly in mind. The girl who could be satisfied with a hamburger and a dime root beer after her only school dance so her momma wouldn't be worried."
— Sue Snell, Carrie
Live-Action TV
"It's 1928. You meet this Bohemian student in a café, and he tries to sell you one of his third-rate watercolors. You refuse. He gets furious. You can see the evil in his eyes. And then someone tells you...that this impudent little twit will one day exterminate six million Jews."
— Angela, American Gothic (1995), "Dr. Death Takes a Holiday"
Illyria: The Wolf, Ram, and Hart? In my time, they were weak. Barely above the vampire.
Knox: Huh. I guess they beefed up.
Knox: Huh. I guess they beefed up.
Brennan: Who was [the Gormogon], Booth?
Sweets: Nobody. Am I right? He was nobody. An invisible man, angry at history for not seeing him.
Angela: Yeah, for a "nobody", he sure wrecked a lot of lives.
Sweets: Nobody. Am I right? He was nobody. An invisible man, angry at history for not seeing him.
Angela: Yeah, for a "nobody", he sure wrecked a lot of lives.
— Bones
"Crazy... I'll tell you what's crazy! Fifty year old high school chemistry teacher comes into my office. The guy is so broke he can't pay his own mortgage. One year later, he's got a pile of cash as big as a Volkswagen. That's crazy."
— Gene Takavic referencing Walter White, Better Call Saul
"Look at you, Jen. You were a sweet kid. Look at you now. The stuff of nightmares. I don't want my world populated by monsters."
— Ganger Cleaves, Doctor Who, "The Almost People"
"Influence is largely a matter of patience, I find. [...] Step by step, one distasteful task after another, I made my way from the slums of Myr to the Small Council Chamber. Influence grows like a weed: I tended mine patiently, until its tendrils reached from the Red Keep all the way to the far side of the world..."
— Lord Varys "The Spider" Master of Whispers, Game of Thrones
"When I was a young man, I heard a story. About a baby born during the worst storm in living memory. She had no wealth, no army. Only a name and a handful of supporters, most of whom probably thought they could use that name to benefit themselves. They kept her alive, moving her from place to place, often hours ahead of the men who'd been sent to kill her. She was eventually sold off to some warlord on the edge of world, and that appeared to be that. A few years later, the most well-informed person I knew told me that this girl without wealth, lands, or armies had somehow acquired all three within a very short span of time. Along with three dragons. Figured you were worth meeting, at least."
— Tyrion Lannister, Game of Thrones
"A farmer comes home one day to find that everything that gives meaning to his life is gone. Crops are burned, animals slaughtered, bodies and broken pieces of his life strewn about. Everything that he loved taken from him. His children. One can only imagine the pit of despair. The hours of Job-like lamentations. The burden of existence. He makes a promise to himself in those dark hours. A life's work erupts from his... knotted mind. Years go by. His suffering becomes... complicated. One day, he stops. The farmer, who is no longer a farmer, sees the wreckage he's left in his wake. It is now he who burns. It is he who slaughters."
— Raymond "Red" Reddington, The Blacklist
"As it is written in this book, average high schooler Tokiwa Sougo embarks on a path which leads him to become the overlord of time, Oma Zi-O."
Music
There was a drifter passing through that little valley
See he had promised he was coming back to town (coming back to town)
They didn't know him by his face, or by the gun around his waist (ooh)
But he come back to burn that town to the ground.
First there was fire, then there was smoke
Then that preacher man was hangin' by a rope
Then they all fell to their knees and begged that drifter
Begged him please, as he raised his fist before he spoke
I am the righteous hand of God
And I am the devil that you forgot
And I told you one day you will see
That I'll be back I guarantee
And that hell's coming, hell's coming
Hell, hell's coming with me.
See he had promised he was coming back to town (coming back to town)
They didn't know him by his face, or by the gun around his waist (ooh)
But he come back to burn that town to the ground.
First there was fire, then there was smoke
Then that preacher man was hangin' by a rope
Then they all fell to their knees and begged that drifter
Begged him please, as he raised his fist before he spoke
I am the righteous hand of God
And I am the devil that you forgot
And I told you one day you will see
That I'll be back I guarantee
And that hell's coming, hell's coming
Hell, hell's coming with me.
— Hell's Comin' with Me, Poor Man's Poison
Travel back one thousand years to the time before Dundee
There lived a simple peasant weaving baskets in a field
But when a prince destroyed his home to bild a kingdom new
He forged a pact with chaos, swore to bring him to his doom
A wizard did arise!
(Concealed a clone beneath Dundee)
The Prince of Fife must die!
He's a sorcerer, neferious, with eyes that burn like fire!
Slaying those who dare oppose the power of his evil desires, oh yeah!
He wields the Laserblaster, Dark Lord of Dundee!
He's a sorcerer, nefarious, and he will bring the kingdom to its knees!
Zargothrax, Master of Nightmares, Keeper of Celestial Flame!
Sorcerer, bound to the darkness, evil lies in his brain!
Dark Lord Zargothrax, Master of Nightmares, Keeper of Celestial Flame!
Wizard King, Chaos Incarnate, Zargothrax is his name!
There lived a simple peasant weaving baskets in a field
But when a prince destroyed his home to bild a kingdom new
He forged a pact with chaos, swore to bring him to his doom
A wizard did arise!
(Concealed a clone beneath Dundee)
The Prince of Fife must die!
He's a sorcerer, neferious, with eyes that burn like fire!
Slaying those who dare oppose the power of his evil desires, oh yeah!
He wields the Laserblaster, Dark Lord of Dundee!
He's a sorcerer, nefarious, and he will bring the kingdom to its knees!
Zargothrax, Master of Nightmares, Keeper of Celestial Flame!
Sorcerer, bound to the darkness, evil lies in his brain!
Dark Lord Zargothrax, Master of Nightmares, Keeper of Celestial Flame!
Wizard King, Chaos Incarnate, Zargothrax is his name!
Tabletop Games
Once there was born a pair of twins, one healthy and good to look upon, and one wretched and tiny. Though the tribe's leaders expected the wholesome son to become a great warrior, it was the runt Vilitch who was to change their fate forever.
— Warhammer: Warriors of Chaos Army Book (7th edition)
Power in Commorragh is a prize to be torn free with bloody hands, not a birthright that can be casually claimed. After all, it is whispered that even the great Vect himself began his days as nought but a slave.
— Warhammer 40,000: Codex — Dark Eldar
Theatre
Damn, you Johnny, you paved the way
For other madmen to make us pay
Lots of madmen have had their say
But only for a day.
For other madmen to make us pay
Lots of madmen have had their say
But only for a day.
— "Ballad of Booth", Assassins
"I was just a paper hanger
No-one more obscurer!
Got a phone call from the Reichstag
Told me I was Führer!
Germany was blue, oh
What oh what to do?
Hitched up my pants
And conquered France
Now Deutschland's smiling through!"
No-one more obscurer!
Got a phone call from the Reichstag
Told me I was Führer!
Germany was blue, oh
What oh what to do?
Hitched up my pants
And conquered France
Now Deutschland's smiling through!"
"I never saw myself as a Solomon or Socrates
I knew who I was:
One of your dime-a-dozen mediocrities
Then suddenly I'm here
Respected — worshipped, even
Just because the folks in Oz
Needed someone to believe in."
I knew who I was:
One of your dime-a-dozen mediocrities
Then suddenly I'm here
Respected — worshipped, even
Just because the folks in Oz
Needed someone to believe in."
— The Wizard, Wicked
Video Games
"Evolution's a funny thing. No matter how many obstacles get in its way, the strongest always survives. Still, you know what they say about evolution? Even amoebas can do it."
— Henry Adams, Batman: Arkham Knight
"Do you not see my crown? No one cared about me, until I put it on. Through power and magic, I became feared and respected! From weakling to ruler... I had never been happier!"
— Wasp King, Bug Fables
"Turns out, mess with someone's head enough, you can turn a scared little kid into an all-powerful bitch."
— Jack, Mass Effect 2
"When Aria arrived, she had nothing but the clothes on her back. I thought she was another dancer. Hah! She killed half my men and convinced the rest she could run this place better than I did. She came for me here in this bar. We tore this place apart. She crushed one of my hearts, shattered half the bones in my body... and left me alive."
— The Patriarch, Mass Effect 2
"A man enters the subway in Kaidan. A man desperate for worth. A nothing that would become the fulcrum of so much. He carries an artifact. A dirty bomb. A Filthy bomb. It was brought from far away by ship. Intrigues, bribes, double-crosses and treachery brought it here. There was a plan, but he never makes it there. He is stopped. He panics. He presses the button.
But who was he?
Initiate scan. Seeking name.
Signal disruption! Our particle wings tear! Something corrupts our broadcast. The Black Signal! The Black!@#!@$%#$..."
But who was he?
Initiate scan. Seeking name.
Signal disruption! Our particle wings tear! Something corrupts our broadcast. The Black Signal! The Black!@#!@$%#$..."
— The Buzzing, The Secret World
"There is no name for what I am, but the world is about to change. And with your help, they will never see me coming..."
— Eleanor Lamb, BioShock 2
Torva started from humble roots in a small village called Flamtaer in Morytania. He single-handedly turned away a pack of ripper demons, while his family and neighbours lay dead about him. Even when Hazeel, the Mahjarrat, grew impatient and decided to complete the job himself, Torva showed no fear. Nex chose to protect Torva then, and trained the human in melee combat.
"Oh, that name, how I hated that name. It remined me of how I hated him, how I hated being him. His stupid little life, that stupid little job. It took me years of screaming and clawing and breaking him down, years of calling out to him trying to get him to set me free. But he was such a coward, then one night it happened. One night I called, and he answered, and after I got him to carve me. I killed him."
"Before she found me, languishing in the mines, I would not have though such a thing possible. But soon... she'll have transformed us from serfs into scions."
—Quan Chi, Mortal Kombat 1
"I did this! Little, tiny Wheatley did this!"
— Wheatley, Portal 2
Webcomics
"You know that man in the ambulance right now? The man capable of, and having already done, absolutely horrible things? There is nothing special about him. He's just an average jerk who, when younger, stumbled on a way to gain use of magic that almost anyone on the planet could use. You want a real-life, non-hypothetical example of why there's so much secrecy? It's lying in the back of that ambulance."
Web Original
No mascot has a stranger story than Popsicle Pete. Manly readers of Man Comics already know "him" as a harbinger of unmitigated fear. In sign language, you say his name by bleeding out of your eyes. Popsicle Pete is what an abortion sees when it imagines its parents. But it wasn't always this way.
Let's go back to the beginning.
In 1939, a 13-year-old named Carl McCready was a finalist in a nation-wide "Typical American Boy" contest. This was unexpected, since he has no memory of entering. He immediately left alone for New York because what's the worst that could happen? Carl won! He was just that typical. They spelled his name wrong when they announced it, but that didn't matter since now that Carl was the "Typical American Boy," he was given a new name: "Popsicle Pete." Little Carl thought, That's weird, but still — hooray! Little Carl thought, I'm going to be a star! Oh, Carl. The darkness never laughs, but if it did, this would be the time for it.
Let's go back to the beginning.
In 1939, a 13-year-old named Carl McCready was a finalist in a nation-wide "Typical American Boy" contest. This was unexpected, since he has no memory of entering. He immediately left alone for New York because what's the worst that could happen? Carl won! He was just that typical. They spelled his name wrong when they announced it, but that didn't matter since now that Carl was the "Typical American Boy," he was given a new name: "Popsicle Pete." Little Carl thought, That's weird, but still — hooray! Little Carl thought, I'm going to be a star! Oh, Carl. The darkness never laughs, but if it did, this would be the time for it.
Modell is a mesmerizing man with the ability to twist your powers of perception and uses this to disguise the fact that he is actually a bit of a failure in life. He contacts the police to get them on his scent because without their interest he would be a nobody, an obscure little man with nothing to make him stand out in a crowd... It's a child's mentality, somebody who is completely forgettable going to any lengths to make himself get noticed. He's rather pathetic, and because of his most childish of motives I found him one of the most unpredictable X-Files bad guys.
I was once told I'd die a slave for killing some Imperials. Now a Moff just bowed to me in respect. And they say social mobility is a myth! Ha! Who's laughing now, HufPo, who's laughing now?
— SF Debris on his Sith Inquisitor character in Star Wars: The Old Republic
James Harrison Reuben was a cable repairman from Topeka, Kansas. A blue-collar worker in a simple, menial job. A perfect receptacle for knowledge. We sent him in with visions of new advancements and beautiful new technologies dancing through our heads.
He came out with the knowledge of how to conquer the world.
It's been seven years since then. His armies and death squads march through the streets of every city in the world. Every battle is a devastating victory: how can it be otherwise, when he has perfect knowledge of all our battle plans before they even happen? It is only a matter of time before he overruns our final stronghold.
He came out with the knowledge of how to conquer the world.
It's been seven years since then. His armies and death squads march through the streets of every city in the world. Every battle is a devastating victory: how can it be otherwise, when he has perfect knowledge of all our battle plans before they even happen? It is only a matter of time before he overruns our final stronghold.
"They... the Children of the Night were curious creatures. They sat under the pitch dark of the tall trees in their wide circles and would hum these sad little songs together, swaying in unison. We — in our arrogance — I suppose, we didn't see them as any more than what we wanted to see; sad little ground dwellers, cleaning up the scraps and slinking around the darkness beneath the canopy. When they sang their miserable little songs to the plants, we didn't care to see the plants begin to bend to the song. We didn't want to see the bodies hung in the branches, so we didn't see them. First it was travelers who started going missing, and then our own. We had ignored them for so long, by the time we started paying them any attention they had turned... foul."
— SCP Foundation, "SCP-6666"
""Picture a child sitting next to a projector,
Learning from your films to become a much better director.
Now, picture a three-billion-dollar dream machine
Who can blockbust all over your crop-duster scene!"
Learning from your films to become a much better director.
Now, picture a three-billion-dollar dream machine
Who can blockbust all over your crop-duster scene!"
"Spiraling, ever whirling,
A twirl to the hurdy-gurdy's tune!
I've gone topsy-turvy
The loon now in flotsam festooned!
Now this soul is fried!!
Seeds thrown to the tide
Wishes denied,
EVERYONE DIES!"
A twirl to the hurdy-gurdy's tune!
I've gone topsy-turvy
The loon now in flotsam festooned!
Now this soul is fried!!
Seeds thrown to the tide
Wishes denied,
EVERYONE DIES!"
— Marx, Kirby Super Star Vs. Marx WITH LYRICS, by Man on the Internet
Western Animation
Green Lantern: Look, whatever he is, he sure isn't in the same league as Grundy and the others. He's a nobody!
Batman: Ever read The Odyssey? After Odysseus was caught by the Cyclops, he told it his name was "Nobody," so when he poked its eye out and its friends asked who did it, all the Cyclops could say was... "Nobody".
Batman: Ever read The Odyssey? After Odysseus was caught by the Cyclops, he told it his name was "Nobody," so when he poked its eye out and its friends asked who did it, all the Cyclops could say was... "Nobody".
Real Life
One of the most brutal things in the world is your average 19-year-old American boy.
— Philip Caputo, A Rumor of War
That such a man could go so far toward realizing his ambitions — that is a phenomenon the world will ponder for centuries to come.
— Konrad Heiden, Der Fuhrer: Hitler's Rise to Power
"I've spent all my life in prison. When I was a child, I was an orphan and too ugly to be adopted. Now I am too beautiful to be set free."
— Charles Manson, convicted cult leader
As James Hydrick is introduced (under his real, Western name), the most startling thing is the sub-normal level of charisma on display. The man with hundreds of disciples back home is vague, awkward and mumbly, and when he finally tells That's Incredible! host Bob Barker "I'm gonna move a pencil for ya," you might be forgiven for being a thousand miles back from the edge of your seat.
— Stuart Millard, "Fifteen-minute Messiah"
"Pol Pot was a history teacher and Hitler was a vegetarian painter, so... mass murder come from the areas you least expect it. I don't know how flip comes over, but it happens."
"I would rather be a little nobody, then to be a evil somebody."
