History BewareTheNiceOnes / Literature

** Magrat Garlick, "the nice one" of the main witches of Lancre, a kind, romantic {{Cloudcuckoolander}} GranolaGirl who just wants to help people and who seems used to being treated as a doormat and a wet hen. She's also demonstrated a willingness [[MamaBear to fight viciously if pushed too far]] (witness what she does to the "Sisters" in ''Discworld/WitchesAbroad'', or the elves in ''Discworld/LordsAndLadies'').

** There's also Carrot Ironfoundersson, a six-foot-six tall dwarf (adopted human, of course). [[TheCape He is perfectly kind, lawful, and incorruptible in a city that is far from any of the above, always sees the bright side of things, and is friendly to everyone he meets]]. He can convince bloodthirsty desert tribesmen ''not'' to charge (a feat which one who knows said tribesmen compares to "Making water run uphill"), get rival gangs of street urchins to play football, and have a friendly chat with a dictatorial if cultured tyrant. He's also strong and skilled enough to fight hand-to-hand with an alpha male werewolf and survive (in ''Discworld/TheFifthElephant''), has a punch that will knock out a troll (those are guys made of solid rock, for those keeping score), and along with having a sword sharp and strong enough to do it, push a sword through a stone pillar like a knife through butter (in ''Discworld/MenAtArms''). It is ''not'' a good idea to give him a reason to take the gloves off, as the man standing between Carrot and said pillar found out.
*** Oddly enough, Carrot also ''subverts'' the trope by his buttons not being pushable by most personal methods. When his girlfriend/lover/person-with-whom-he-has-an-Understanding is kidnapped (in ''Discworld/{{Jingo}}'') and skips town (in ''Discworld/TheFifthElephant''), he ''informs the proper authority before trying to go after her''. This is because he believes with all his heart that personal is not the same as important - and this makes him all the ''more'' dangerous. How many heroes have been dissuaded from doing in the bad guy by a convenient personal appeal?

** And Mort in ''Discworld/{{Mort}}''. Death's controlling ways and preference for ''extreme'' consequences causes him to challenge the GrimReaper himself in one-on-one combat. "My name is Mort, you bastard!"

** From the same book (''Discworld/TheTruth''), Sachrissa get a mad gleam in her eye when there's a reason for her to get nasty. The narration notes that is worse in people who have always been nice, as they have much more bad behaviour stored up than those who let it out regularly.

* Literature/LaughingWinds has Annika. She is normally a sweet, polite, and gentle person. She is also trapped in a death camp. One night she sees a guard pulling a childs' remains out of furnace the same night [[spoiler: her little brother]] disappears. The next day the same guard makes the mistake of confronting her while she is working on the assembly line and holding a heated saw.....it doesn't end well for him.

* The main theme of [[Creator/RudyardKipling Rudyard Kipling's]] poem "Et Dona Ferente" is "Do not piss off an Englishman." Because these stuffy, well-mannered, almost-comically polite guys who'd rather do their fighting with worlds than swords and guns? Well, they can afford to be this way for a reason.

* Joshua from ''Literature/DoraWilkSeries''. Usually, he's ShrinkingViolet, down-on-his-luck angel in the shadow of his more outgoing friends Miron and Dora. But he's also one of the few angels who can [[UnstoppableRage Manifest]], and when he does, better for you not to stand between him and his target.

* Zachary State in ''Literature/TheMentalState'' starts off as an extremely open-minded and caring friend who has great sympathy for other people, including criminals. Once he decides to shorten his name to Zack, he appears to be just as helpful and even tries to improve the quality of life of people in prison. However, beneath his charismatic and supportive persona beats the heart of a ruthless and manipulative sociopath who will go to extreme lengths to get what he wants and crush any iota of his opposition. Everyone finds out the hard way not to oppose his ideals.

** In ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows The Deathly Hallows]]'', shortly after [[spoiler: [[TearJerker the death of Mrs Weasley's son Fred]],]] [[TheDragon Bellatrix Lestrange]] makes the mistake of [[BerserkButton threatening Molly's daughter, Ginny.]] Cue one hell of a MamaBear CrowningMomentOfAwesome

** A special mention must go to Shannon Foraker. Absent-minded tactical officer who consistently forgets to use the [[InsistentTerminology approved Revolutionary titles]] when addressing her superiors, and mostly goes unpunished because she's good at what she does, and she's ''adorable''. [[spoiler: Kills 10,000+ mooks in the blink of an eye with a keystroke and the word "[[CrowningMomentOfAwesome Oops.]]"]]

*** Loial's CrowningMomentOfAwesome (so far) is probably when he defends a group of children during a Trolloc attack. People are simply DUMBFOUNDED by his actions. If an Ogier ever tells you that he is "putting a long handle" on his axe...run...run fast.

* Cassie from the ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' series. Sure, she might be in a war, but only reluctantly (and she's usually the one pushing for 'plans other than kill them all'). But if you piss her off, heaven help you. Just ask Davis, who made the mistake of [[BerserkButton calling her the n-word]] - whereupon she ''[[CrowningMomentofAwesome turned into a polar bear and pinned him to a wall]]''.

*** And when Harry finds out how horribly the Carrows treated their students, and witnesses Amycus Carrow spit on a Professor that he cares about, he [[BatmanGrabsAGun fires a [[AgonyBeam Cruciatus]]]] at the offender.

*** And when Harry finds out how horribly the Carrows treated their students, and witnesses Amycus Carrow spit on a Professor that he cares about, he [[BatmanGrabsAGun and fires a [[AgonyBeam Cruciatus]] at the offender.

** The [[WhenTreesAttack Ents]]. Pacifistic keepers of the forests. Saruman found out the hard way that you shouldn't get on their bad side.

* ''Literature/SurvivorDogs'': In the first book, Sweet is a gentle dog but this changes come the sequel. Lucky sees a different side of Sweet when she's beta under Alpha. Sweet can be as sweet as her name implies but she can be very ruthless and cruel when need be, to the point where her name becomes an IronicName.

* In the StarWarsExpandedUniverse, Luke Skywalker's characterization varies pretty significantly DependingOnTheWriter. But his characterization in ''Literature/LukeSkywalkerAndTheShadowsOfMindor'' is very much this. When he has any choice at all, he resolves things peacefully. He will forgive anything, if you try to make up for what you've done. He gives you a lot of ''chances'' to be reasonable, and will wholeheartedly regret the loss of life if you don't take them. After Luke lets himself get captured, he asks too many questions and a stormtrooper clubs him with a blaster rifle, telling him to be quiet. Luke says "Please don't hit me" and is smacked again while the stormtrooper says "Didn't you ''hear'' me?" Luke says he did, but didn't see any particular reason to obey. The stormtrooper tries to hit him a third time, and Luke catches the blaster rifle and shatters it. Another stormtrooper tries to shoot him; Luke catches the blaster bolts.

*** To reinforce just how MamaBear Mrs Weasley can be, recall [[spoiler: fake Moody's speech to his Defence Against the Dark Arts class regarding Avada Kedavra. Specifically the part about how much rage is required to be able to cast it, and actually kill someone]].

*** And when Harry finds out how horribly the Carrows treated their students, and witnesses Amycus Carrow spit on a Professor that he cares about, he BatmanGrabsAGun and fires one [[AgonyBeam Cruciatus bullet]] at the offender.
** [[CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass Neville]]. Just...[[TookALevelInBadass Neville]].
** [[EccentricMentor Dumbledore]] is about the nicest old professor you could hope to meet as well as being [[OldMaster the single most powerful wizard on Earth]].

** Mild-mannered, friendly [[CoolTeacher Professor]] [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent Remus Lupin]]. At the climax of the third book when he and [[spoiler: Sirius]] confront [[spoiler: Peter with the evidence of his betrayal, Sirius asks him casually "Shall we kill him together?" and Remus simply answers "Yes, I think so."]]
** One does not simply make Ginny Weasley angry. If you do, [[OhCrap prepare to be on the receiving end of one of her Bat-Bogey Hexes.]] If her brothers are to be believed, it isn't going to be a pretty outcome.

** Dobby, especially in the second and seventh books.

** Harry Dresden is one of the premier examples of these in the series. He's a cheerfully irreverent geek who cares for his elderly landlady's lawn and has adopted every single stray animal in the series. He's also a deadly wizard, who over the course of the series rises in power from the top half of wizards to the top twenty to the top ten, meaning before considering any of his rolodex of mantles of power, he has the magical punch to go toe to toe with the most ancient, wise, powerful mortals on earth. He does have a notable, if diminishing, lack of subtlety, but when someone is bringing a comet of fire down at you, you're not really concerned about how subtle it was. Tamper with Chicago, mess with the defenseless, threaten his friends, and he [[LetsGetDangerous goes from one mode to another]] in a heartbeat. Murphy describes him as a frightening "primeval force of nature", and she's the one ''watching his back''. By the end of {{Literature/Changes}}, Harry has a killcount up among even the most savage tyrants of human history. By his own hand. The reason: [[spoiler:Red Court vampires kidnapped his child, which he only just found out he even had. Doing what he had to do to save his girl resulted in the death of the entire Court. A major power in the supernatural world was destroyed that night]].

* Damien of ''Literature/StarshipsMage'' is typically quiet, polite and genuinely concerned about making sure that everyone is treated equitably when he acts as a troubleshooter for the [[TheKingdom Mage-King]]. But if you go too far, he won't hesitate to take you down.

** Adolin, Dalinar's son is a cheerful sort, who comes off as somewhat foppish. However he is also a skilled duelist and warrior who characters an [[AbsurdlySharpBlade absurdly sharp]] SoulCuttingBlade and has a strong HotBlooded streak especially when his family is threatened or insulted. [[spoiler: Sadeas ends up on the wrong side of his temper when there was nobody there to restrain him, and ends up with a knife through the eye.]]

** Harry Dresden is one of the premier examples of these in the series. He's a cheerfully irreverent geek who cares for his elderly landlady's lawn and has adopted every single stray animal in the series. He's also a deadly wizard, who over the course of the series rises in power from the top half of wizards to the top twenty to the top ten, meaning before considering any of his rolodex of mantles of power, he has the magical punch to go toe to toe with the most ancient, wise, powerful mortals on earth. He does have a notable, if diminishing, lack of subtlety, but when someone is bringing a comet of fire down at you, you're not really concerned about how subtle it was. Tamper with Chicago, mess with the defenseless, threaten his friends, and he [[LetsGetDangerous goes from one mode to another]] in a heartbeat. Murphy describes him as a frightening "primeval force of nature", and she's the one ''watching his back''. By the end of {{Literature/Changes}}, Harry has a killcount up among even the most savage tyrants of human history. By his own hand. The reason: [[spoiler:Red Court vampires kidnapped his child, which he only just found out he even had. Doing what he had to do to save his girl resulted in the death of practically the entire Court. A major power in the supernatural world was destroyed that night]].

** Mouse. Harry's BigFriendlyDog... who is actually an immensely powerful guardian spirit, who plays up the goofy adorableness so people will like him and give him scritches and treats (Mouse may be a magic dog, but he is a dog first and foremost). Mouse has, over the course of the series, shouted down high-ranking [[TheFairFolk Fae]] (who seem to be far more afraid of him than his nominal owner), barked loud enough to frighten wraiths, dispelled sleep enchantments on entire apartment blocks and shrugged off bullet wounds and being hit full force by a speeding van. In fact, the power of Mouse's "lovable fuzzbucket"-persona is such that even die-hard fans of the series tend to forget that Mouse has outright ''killed'' two major-league villains ''on-page''.

** Behold Waldo Butters, geeky, cowardly NonActionGuy. Spends most of ''Dead Beat'' panicking and needing to be rescued. But when he's on the ropes, he [[spoiler:tackles Quintus Cassius and attacks him with his ''teeth'' to save Harry]].

** Mouse. Harry's BigFriendlyDog... who is actually an immensely powerful guardian spirit, who plays up the goofy adorableness so people will like him and give him scritches and treats (Mouse may be a magic dog, but he is a dog first and foremost). Mouse has, over the course of the series, shouted down high-ranking [[TheFairFolk Fae]] (who seem to be far more afraid of him than his nominal owner), barked loud enough to frighten wraiths, dispelled sleep enchantments on entire apartment blocks and shrugged off bullet wounds and being his full force by a speeding van. In fact, the power of Mouse's "lovable fuzzbucket"-persona is such that even die-hard fans of the series tend to forget that Mouse has outright ''killed'' two major-league villains ''on-page''.