History BewareTheNiceOnes / Literature

--> '''Gorbag''': No one, ''no one'', has ever stuck a pin in Shelob before.

-->"You will never get it back. In the last need, Sméagol, I should put on the Precious; and the Precious mastered you long ago. If I, wearing it, were to command you, you would obey, even if it were to leap from a precipice or to cast yourself into the fire. ''And such would be my command.'' So have a care, Sméagol!"

-->'''George''': "[[PintSizedPowerHouse Yeah, size is no guarantee of power. Look at]] [[CuteBruiser Ginny."]]
-->'''Harry''': What d'you mean?"
--> '''George''': "You've never been on the receiving end of one of her Bat-Bogey Hexes, have you?"

** 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."]] He's also notable for being the ''only Order member'' (except [[AsskickingEqualsAuthority Dumbledore]] to survive the Ministry battle in Book 5 intact.

*** In ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix Order of the Phoenix'', she sets up Professor Umbridge to be abducted by the centaurs in the Forbidden Forest. Luckily the Potterverse centaurs behavior and culture as shown in previous appearances are very unlike their mythological counterparts.

--> ''Mrs. Weasley was marching across the yard, scattering chickens, and for a short, plump, kind-faced woman, it was remarkable how much she looked like a [[PantheraAwesome saber-toothed tiger]].''

* ''Literature/HarryPotter'' has at least one lovely example of this. Molly Weasley is normally a pretty sweet-natured lady. However, when she's angry, her husband and sons are all terrified. How did Creator/JKRowling describe her in ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets The Chamber of Secrets]]'' again? Oh, right:

* [[Literature/GauntsGhosts Ibram Gaunt]] can be considered an example of this. By Imperium standards, he's pretty reasonable. Get someone killed through incompetence or stupidity, however, and he will not hesitate to make an example of you.

* [[Literature/EndersGame Ender Wiggin]] isn't "a sweet little kid", he's ''even sweeter''. He doesn't want to hurt anyone. He loves everyone he meets the way they love themselves. And if he determines someone should no longer be able to cause harm, he makes sure that someone will ''never'' be a threat, ''ever''. [[spoiler:He wasn't called the Xenocide, in the following novels, because he was the Formics' drinking buddy during the first book, after all.]]
** Remember that Ender is a nickname. [[MeaningfulName He got it for a reason.]]

-->"I never liked zer damn cocoa anyvay."

* ''Literature/TheDarkElfTrilogy'' has Drizzt Do'Urden, who at first is depicted as the WideEyedIdealist with a [[FriendToAllLivingThings heart of gold]]. His enemies make the unfortunate mistake of assuming that he's weak and wind up having the living shit being beaten out of him in one of his biggest {{Unstoppable Rage}}s in the history of dark elves. And he's ''completely outnumbered and severely injured'' in most of these battles?

** There's the saying, quoted in several books "Do Not Fuck With The Culture." This is proved rather horrifically in ''Look to Windward''. A Chelgrian agent is sent to blank a Orbital's Hub Mind. The Culture are very, very unhappy about this when it's discovered. They send out one assassin against the conspirators -an assassin that can turn into a swarm of f'esh-eating bugs.

** There's the saying, quoted in several books "Do Not Fuck With The Culture." This is proved rather horrifically in ''Look to Windward''. A Chelgrian agent is sent to black a Orbital's Hub Mind. The Culture are very, very unhappy about this when it's discovered. They send out one assassin against the conspirators -an assassin that can turn into a swarm of f'esh-eating bugs.

* More of a "Nice Civilization" than "Nice Person", ''Literature/TheCulture'', the society in Iain M. Banks's series of novels, makes a point of being morally and ethically spotless, considers it their mission to find and improve the lives of "lesser species," and likes to ensure its denizens live happy and carefree. When you threaten this mission, they ''will'' go to war, and you will ''lose''.\\\
Not only that, but the Culture is basically a civilisation of space hippies, whose [[PlanetOfHats Hat]] is "Make love, not war": they are so reluctant to go to war that it takes years-long debate among its 30.000+ ''billion'' citizens to makes the Culture go to war. When the [[ScaryDogmaticAliens Idiran Empire]] crossed the line in ''Literature/ConsiderPhlebas'', the war that followed caused the destruction of more than 14,000 space colonies, the death of over 850 ''billion'' intelligent beings, and the destruction of more than 50 [[EarthShatteringKaboom planets]] and 6 ''stars'': When you encounter space hippies, remember to be polite, courteous, and do not accuse them of being a threat to your way of life: if pissed off, they will blow up your [[ApocalypseHow home solar system]]. They may be softly spoken, but they carry ''really'' big sticks.\\\
Stick here being translated as the ability to reduce whatever patch of existence it's being fired at into absolute nothingness. Oh, and every single one of their warships is capable of reducing an entire world to slag, ...on their own... Lampshaded in that one of their spaceships is actually named ''I said, I've got a big stick'' ([[StealthPun which is supposed to be spoken ''softly''...]])
** There's the saying, quoted in several books "Do Not Fuck With The Culture." This is proved rather horrifically in ''Look to Windward''.

* Creator/StephenKing's ''Literature/{{Carrie}}'', who on top of all the abuse heaped on her [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer at school]] and [[AbusiveParents by her mother]], has [[BreakTheCutie one too many things go wrong]] on prom night, and thus [[UnstoppableRage goes on a killing spree.]]
** Creator/StephenKing excels at this trope; ''Literature/{{Cujo}}'' was another example, and Jack Torrance (though he did have a history) in ''Literature/TheShining''. Not movie Torrance, though. We all know he was [[AxCrazy crazy from the start]]. He's played by Creator/JackNicholson, that should be a warning sign.
** Jake of ''Franchise/TheDarkTower''. A nice normal little kid - but capable of being as ruthlessly efficient a killing machine as any other Gunslinger when necessary. To say nothing of what happens if you hurt his friends. [[spoiler: To the point where he actually pulls his gun on a motorist for almost running over [[TeamPet Oy]] ]]

*** In ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix Order of the Phoenix]]'', she sets up Professor Umbridge to be abducted by the centaurs in the Forbidden Forest. Luckily the Potterverse centaurs behavior and culture as shown in previous appearances are very unlike their mythological counterparts.

* Creator/DavidEddings seems to enjoy this one. [[Literature/TheBelgariad Belgarion]] is a generally nice guy who tries to do the right thing, and if you go after his family or murder some farmers, "the right thing" tends to involve you, his {{BFS}}, and a demonstration of why he's allowed to put "Godslayer" on his official letterhead. Polgara has spent most of her life as a doctor and taking care of children but can give you a matinee of your worst nightmare or turn you into a snake, and she isn't afraid to ShootTheDog. But for the gold, there's Aphrael and Sephrenia in ''The Tamuli'': upon learning that [[spoiler: Zalasta had been plotting to kill Aphrael for several centuries]], Aphrael begins planning to eat his heart, and Sephrenia enjoys breaking his spells (which hurts, oh sweet Edaemus it hurts) just a bit too much.

* In Creator/AgathaChristie's ''Literature/AndThenThereWereNone'', Vera Claythorne appears to be a [[NaiveEverygirl very sweet, sensible person]]... at first. [[spoiler: And if you're not scared by the fact that [[{{Yandere}} she killed her former pupil so her lover could inherit the child's estate]] four years before the events of the novel, just wait and see what [[MindRape four days of psychological torture]] does to her...]] The reason she is [[spoiler:the last person to die]] was that [[spoiler:the killer thought this seemingly sweet, sensible person was the worst criminal on the island, and he wanted her to suffer for as long as possible.]]
** This trope is very prevalent in Christie's novels. An extreme example occurs in [[spoiler:''Literature/DeathComesAsTheEnd'']].

* In the ''[[Literature/TheDresdenFiles Dresden Files]]'' book ''Luterature/SummerKnight'', [[spoiler:the faerie Aurora, the Lady of the Summer Court (which is generally much, much nicer than its counterpart the Winter Court), gets so sick of seeing the suffering caused by the continual war between the two Courts that she kills Summer's human Knight (their emissary to the mortal world), stores his power in a changeling girl, turns said girl into a statue, and plans to sacrifice the girl in order to transfer the power to Winter, tipping the balance of power in Winter's favor and causing the end of the world as we know it.]]

* In the ''[[Literature/TheDresdenFiles Dresden Files]]'' book ''Summer Knight'', [[spoiler: the faerie Aurora, the Lady of the Summer Court (which is generally much, much nicer than its counterpart the Winter Court), gets so sick of seeing the suffering caused by the continual war between the two Courts that she kills Summer's human Knight (their emissary to the mortal world), stores his power in a changeling girl, turns said girl into a statue, and plans to sacrifice the girl in order to transfer the power to Winter, tipping the balance of power in Winter's favor and causing the end of the world as we know it.]]

*** The Summer Court in general is like this. [[TheHighQueen Titania herself]] appears to be more GoodIsNotNice (it's hard to tell what she's really like, since [[spoiler:Harry kinda killed her daughter]]), and more than a few of her subjects are flat-out TheFairFolk, but the Summer Knight, [[spoiler:the new Summer Lady, Lily]], [[spoiler: [[FriendlyEnemy Eldest Gruff]]]], and [[spoiler: [[PhysicalGod Mother Summer]]]] are lovely people who hold terrifying amounts of power and have no qualms about using it. Summer may have a kinder face than Winter, but it's no less dangerous.
** 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, has ChronicHeroSyndrome up the wazoo, 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, 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]].

** 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. He later becomes one of the [[TookALevelInBadass aforementioned Knights]].]]
** Sweet, friendly PerkyGoth Molly Carpenter. Nice girl in general, loves her family, has a small crush on Harry [[spoiler:that develops into true love]], cares so much for her friends that she [[spoiler: tries to scare them straight using mind control magic. Also capable of powerful and complex illusions that induce people to kill each other or think that unholy creatures from the Nevernever are after them...]]

* Mild-mannered, nervous motormouth [[TheComicallySerious Cumber]] doesn't give anyone the impression he could kill, but in ''Literature/{{Dragoncharm}}'' he is eventually pushed to kill a [[spoiler: prison-guard]] and surprises even himself.
* ''Literature/ParadiseRot'': Desmond is a very polite, small, and outspokenly gay [[spoiler:zombie]] that turns out to be just as good at this Rambo stuff as Oscar.
* In ''Literature/DragonBones'', there are several examples. Lampshaded with old nobleman Haverness, who has a reputation for being honourable to a fault, very traditional, and the only one at the DecadentCourt who takes oaths really ''seriously''. He is known to be absolutely loyal to the king. [[spoiler: Until king Jakoven makes it clear that no, he will not provide help to defend Haverness' homeland Oranstone against bandit hordes. With which he breaks ''his'' side of the oath, and frees Haverness to start a revolution.]] Haverness is a good fighter and strategist, and so is his daughter.
** And then there is Oreg, who seems to be a frightened youth of seventeen, and is very polite. Only that he's actually a powerful mage. And has been trained as an assassin. He's still TheWoobie, as he's an immortal slave, bound by magic too powerful even for him to break. [[spoiler: He's freed when Ward kills him at his own request and later returns as a ''dragon''.]] Fortunately, Ward is nice to ''everyone'', otherwise that could have ended badly.

* ''[[Literature/LittleHouseOnThePrairie Farmer Boy]]'' by Laura Ingalls Wilder recounts how the [[GangOfBullies older boys]] at Almanzo's school have made a yearly practice of delivering [[CurbStompBattle a one-sided beatdown]] to their teacher, hurting them badly enough that one of the previous teachers died. This year's teacher is small, nice, soft-spoken Mr. Corse, and Almanzo dreads having to see what the boys from Hardscrabble Hill are going to do to him... until the big boys actually show up and [[BadassTeacher Mr. Corse]] demonstrates that he's ready for them, ''literally'' whipping them all the way out of the classroom with a fifteen-foot blacksnake whip.
* Creator/StephenKing's ''Literature/{{Carrie}}'', who on top of all the abuse heaped on her [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer at school]] and [[AbusiveParents by her mother]], has [[BreakTheCutie one too many things go wrong]] on prom night, and thus [[UnstoppableRage goes on a killing spree.]]
** Creator/StephenKing excels at this trope; ''Literature/{{Cujo}}'' was another example, and Jack Torrance (though he did have a history) in ''Literature/TheShining''. Not movie Torrance, though. We all know he was [[AxCrazy crazy from the start]]. He's played by Creator/JackNicholson, that should be a warning sign.
** Jake of ''Franchise/TheDarkTower''. A nice normal little kid - but capable of being as ruthlessly efficient a killing machine as any other Gunslinger when necessary. To say nothing of what happens if you hurt his friends. [[spoiler: To the point where he actually pulls his gun on a motorist for almost running over [[TeamPet Oy]] ]]

** Altera Blue, the blind and crippled griffin, also a captive. He makes Aera look like a jerk, fiercely loyal to his friends and hanz servant, Kinnee. The moment he finds out about Kinnee's survival, he goes from a DeathSeeker to TheDeterminator in five seconds flat. And during a WoundedGazelleGambit, he attacks a human lab tech, quite efficiently shreds their clothing, and leaves them some wounds to remember him by. (Not to mention that he gets what they really are after - an RFID badge that can open their cage locks).
* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'':
** Near the end of ''A Storm of Swords'', Tyrion Lannister finds out that his horribly abused first wife Tysha, who he thought was a prostitute, actually loved him. This is the last straw, and he swears vengeance on his family [[spoiler:and kills his father (on the privy, no less) along with his former concubine (who had humiliated him during a show trial). *And* he tells his older brother Jaime that sooner or later he'll kill him too, for obeying their dad's orders of following the charade]].
** CuteBruiser Arya Stark. Remember, the precocious little tomboy who just wanted to be treated equally with her brothers? Yay, you do not want to fuck with her, especially after she starts going ''[[ArcWords valar morghulis]]'' on anyone who gets in her way.
** Arya's older sister, WideEyedIdealist Sansa. As of book four, [[spoiler: she's currently taking [[MagnificentBastard Magnificent Bitch]] lessons from none other than [[BigBad Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish]] himself]].
** Jaqen H'ghar. To clarify, Arya joins up with Yoren and a party of criminals brought out of the king's dungeons to serve on the Wall. Three of these are considered so dangerous that they're kept in cages in a cart. One is a shameless rapist who's always harassing people, one is a mute cannibal who's always snapping at people, and one is a soft-spoken and unfailingly polite man with a strong personal code of honor. No points for guessing which one is the most dangerous. Even the other two are afraid of him.
** Daenerys Targaryen is, generally speaking, one of the most compassionate and well-wishing characters in the series, especially where the weak and abused (slaves, children, etc.) are concerned. Hurt them or the people she loves, however, and you are likely to die a horrible death, probably involving a great deal of [[KillItWithFire fire]]. She doesn't take too kindly to betrayal, either.
** Prince Doran Martell of Dorne. Even those closest to him see him as an ineffectual hand-wringer stricken with gout, who refuses to take any decisive action even when his house suffers terrible indignities. He loses the loyalty and respect of Dorne because of this, and even his own daughter takes matters into her own hands, attempting to incite war against the crown for the death of both of Doran's siblings... But then Doran explains the truth to his daughter: [[spoiler: that he has been secretly plotting to restore the Targaryen dynasty to power for decades now, ever since the death of his sister, and he is practically the only person left alive who knows a thing about it.]] Doran even [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] it in this passage from ''Literature/ADanceWithDragons'', contrasting himself with his late brother [[HotBlooded Oberyn]]:
---> '''Doran''': “I am not blind, nor deaf. I know you all believe me weak, frightened, feeble. Your father knew me better. Oberyn was ever the viper. Deadly, dangerous, unpredictable. [[TheDreaded No man dared tread on him]]. I was the grass. [[FauxAffablyEvil Pleasant, complaisant, sweet-smelling, swaying with every breeze. Who fears to walk upon the grass?]] But it is the grass that hides the viper from his enemies [[BitchInSheepsClothing and shelters him until he strikes.]]”
* Roald Dahl's ''Literature/{{Matilda}}'' is one of the nicest children you could wish to meet - as long as you don't make her mad.
* Tom Clancy's [[Literature/JackRyan Ryanverse]] has John Clark, an ex-Navy Seal and Intelligence operative. He is normally a nice guy, but if you mess with him or anyone close to him, you will know pain. In ''Without Remorse'', after the accidental death of his wife, his next girlfriend is a former prostitute/drug mule. When her former employers kill her, John Clark then proceeds to kill every one of them, and torture the worst of them with a pressure chamber. In ''The Sum of All Fears'', some neighborhood punks harass a local convenience store owner under his protection; he and his CIA protege beat the living snot out of them.
** He is best summed up by:
---> '''John''': "I am the most even tempered person I know."
---> '''Jack''': "Yah, they're dead before you're mildly annoyed"
* Literature/HarryPotter has at least one lovely example of this. Molly Weasley is normally a pretty sweet-natured lady. However, when she's angry, her husband and sons are all terrified. How did Creator/JKRowling describe her in ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets The Chamber of Secrets]]'' again? Oh, right:

* Mary Anne from ''Literature/TheBabySittersClub'' gets ''extremely'' vindictive when pushed too far.
* Edmond Dantes from ''Literature/TheCountOfMonteCristo''. Edmond was a guy who had everything going for him, then lost ''everything'' thanks to being screwed over by those he thought were his friends. What ensues is a gigantic BatmanGambit to take revenge on every last one of them and their families.
* In the ''[[Literature/TheDresdenFiles Dresden Files]]'' book ''Summer Knight'', [[spoiler: the faerie Aurora, the Lady of the Summer Court (which is generally much, much nicer than its counterpart the Winter Court), gets so sick of seeing the suffering caused by the continual war between the two Courts that she kills Summer's human Knight (their emissary to the mortal world), stores his power in a changeling girl, turns said girl into a statue, and plans to sacrifice the girl in order to transfer the power to Winter, tipping the balance of power in Winter's favor and causing the end of the world as we know it.]]
** In the same book, Changeling Fix [[spoiler:beats the crap out of [[PsychoForHire the Winter Knight Lloyd Slate]] with a wrench after he mortally wounds Meryl.]]
*** And now Fix [[spoiler:is the new Summer Knight, with the powers that come with the office.]]
*** The Summer Court in general is like this. [[TheHighQueen Titania herself]] appears to be more GoodIsNotNice (it's hard to tell what she's really like, since [[spoiler:Harry kinda killed her daughter]]), and more than a few of her subjects are flat-out TheFairFolk, but the Summer Knight, [[spoiler:the new Summer Lady, Lily]], [[spoiler: [[FriendlyEnemy Eldest Gruff]]]], and [[spoiler: [[PhysicalGod Mother Summer]]]] are lovely people who hold terrifying amounts of power and have no qualms about using it. Summer may have a kinder face than Winter, but it's no less dangerous.
** 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, has ChronicHeroSyndrome up the wazoo, 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, 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]].
*** Thomas said it best: “He's Gandalf on crack and an IV of Red Bull, with a big leather coat and a .44 revolver in his pocket.”
** Not only is he a [[GoodShepherd sincerely faithful]] [[SaintlyChurch man of God]], [[RealMenLoveJesus Michael]] is an incredibly sweet, even-tempered NiceGuy. That being said, he is also a KnightInShiningArmor who slings a badass [[CoolSword holy sword that can rip through evil magic (and just about anything else) like it was tissue paper]]. Do not mess with Michael. ''Ever''. And ''especially'' don't [[PapaWolf threaten his family]]. This applies to all of the Knights, actually...
** On messing with Michael and his family: If they don't get you, Harry will. The line: "Fuego, Pyrofuego! ''Burn!''" comes to mind. As this was the line said by Harry as he blasted a beam of possibly soulfire enhanced flame (the fires of creation), without a focus (which is serious) through a human possessed and wielding the full power of a fallen angel. It counts even more when you realise the last part of the line was an echo of something Superman said, when he completely flipped out at Mongul and used his heat ray vision on him. This makes it even scarier.
** 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. He later becomes one of the [[TookALevelInBadass aforementioned Knights]].]]
** Sweet, friendly PerkyGoth Molly Carpenter. Nice girl in general, loves her family, has a small crush on Harry [[spoiler:that develops into true love]], cares so much for her friends that she [[spoiler: tries to scare them straight using mind control magic. Also capable of powerful and complex illusions that induce people to kill each other or think that unholy creatures from the Nevernever are after them...]]
** Invoked by name with adult film manager Arturo Genosa.
** 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''. He can also make a literal FallenAngel freak out.
* 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 [[TheGoodKingdom Mage-King]]. But if you go too far, he won't hesitate to take you down.
-->Every time she saw the Hand, Amiri started to get nervous. Damien was... young, polite, and, with the Runes of Power carved into his body, an extraordinarily powerful Mage. She also knew, unlike most, that he already had a body count to make serial killers blush.
* In the first book of Raymond E. Feist and Janny Wurts's ''[[Literature/TheRiftwarCycle Empire Trilogy]]'', the basically sweet and gentle Mara, who has had the position of ruler thrust upon her, marries a young man who [[spoiler:starts abusing her on their wedding night. In response, she [[MagnificentBastard manipulates him]] into a position where he's forced to commit ritual suicide]].
** Heck, messing with Lady Mara is generally a VERY bad idea. Consider the way she snaps in ''Mistress of the Empire'' when she [[spoiler: has her spymaster eradicate an entire order of assassins because they killed her son, another not-yet-born child of hers and very nearly herself.]]

* The nicest character in ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'' is Perrin Aybara, a henpecked husband, that's basically his wife's bitch. In one memorable scene after [[spoiler:his wife has been kidnapped]], he chops off an Aiel's hand, orders an Aes Sedai to heal the stump, and then tells the Aiel that unless he talks Perrin will cut off his other hand and his feet, and then dump him into a town, so the Aiel can beg for a living. Then he walks away.
** To put this in perspective, remember that the [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Aiel]] are a people who live by honor above all else, to the point where some kill themselves over an act of dishonor. And they view beggars as possibly THE least honorable thing to be. Perrin is basically threatening the guy with a FateWorseThanDeath. The Aiel and his companions, who are members of what's known to be the most stubborn tribe out of all the Aiel (which is REALLY saying something), cave almost immediately.
*** [[spoiler:Lanfear]] finds out too late that despite his strong personal code of honour, if pushed far enough, [[spoiler:Perrin]] WouldHitAGirl.
** The Ogier are an entire race of nice guys (on the main continent, at least). The saying 'To anger an Ogier and to pull a mountain over your head' is thought to refer to two impossibilities. Events show that it might have originally read 'To anger an Ogier ''is'' to pull a mountain over your head.'
*** Loial's 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.
*** The Ogier as a group show their mettle in the Last Battle. Their cohort is not so much a military unit as an advancing wall of death.
** Rand isn't necessarily a very nice person (being driven slowly insane, having people wanting to control you, and having the voice of Lews 'Kinslayer' Therin babbling away in your head would drive most people to more ruthless tendencies), but if you hurt someone he cares about or is related to someone he cares about, you will find out ''exactly'' why people fear the Dragon Reborn and he will wipe you from time itself so comprehensively that even the Dark One himself can't save you.
* The ''Literature/BetsyTheVampireQueen'' series gives us Laura, daughter of Satan and one of the nicest people you could meet since she's trying to be an AntiAntiChrist. Problem is, when she gets mad, she breaks out a sword of hellfire and slaughters everything in the area. Those instincts are a ''bitch'' to keep restrained.
* More of a "Nice Civilization" than "Nice Person", Literature/TheCulture, the society in Iain M. Banks's series of novels, makes a point of being morally and ethically spotless, considers it their mission to find and improve the lives of "lesser species," and likes to ensure its denizens live happy and carefree. When you threaten this mission, they ''will'' go to war, and you will ''lose''.\\\
Not only that, but the Culture is basically a civilisation of space hippies, whose [[PlanetOfHats Hat]] is "Make love, not war": they are so reluctant to go to war that it takes years-long debate among its 30.000+ ''billion'' citizens to makes the Culture go to war. When the [[ScaryDogmaticAliens Idiran Empire]] crossed the line in ''Literature/ConsiderPhlebas'', the war that followed caused the destruction of more than 14,000 space colonies, the death of over 850 ''billion'' intelligent beings, and the destruction of more than 50 [[EarthShatteringKaboom planets]] and 6 ''stars'': When you encounter space hippies, remember to be polite, courteous, and do not accuse them of being a threat to your way of life: if pissed off, they will blow up your [[ApocalypseHow home solar system]]. They may be softly spoken, but they carry ''really'' big sticks.\\\
Stick here being translated as the ability to reduce whatever patch of existence it's being fired at into absolute nothingness. Oh, and every single one of their warships is capable of reducing an entire world to slag, ...on their own... Lampshaded in that one of their spaceships is actually named ''I said, I've got a big stick'' ([[StealthPun which is supposed to be spoken ''softly''...]])
** There's the saying, quoted in several books "Do Not Fuck With The Culture." This is proved rather horrifically in ''Look to Windward''.
** ''Literature/UseOfWeapons'' gives us this gem:
-->"You might call them soft, because they're very reluctant to kill, and they might agree with you, but they're soft the way the ocean is soft, and, well, ask any sea captain how harmless and puny the ocean can be."
* The Mord Sith in the ''Literature/SwordOfTruth'' series are the kindest, gentlest, and most sensitive girls that can be found. They make the best torturers once they've been [[BreakTheCutie broken]] because the greatest cruelty comes from the greatest kindness.
** Rather a lot of the good guys in the series fit this trope.

* 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 turned into a polar bear and pinned him to a wall.
--> “Don't worry, I can turn white”
** She also suggested [[SixthRangerTraitor David's]] FateWorseThanDeath, being [[ShapeshifterModeLock Mode Locked]] as a rat and stranded on a small island.
*** Cassie is interesting because you don't ''have'' to get her into an UnstoppableRage to get bad results. David's fate? That was cold rationalism; she was crying as he got stuck. For another example, the fate of Visser Four's host.
** Likewise the Chee - immensely strong androids, and hard-wired pacifists. Except the one time Erek was freed from that part of his programming and proceeded to wipe out an entire strike force single-handed. It's mentioned at some point that he did more damage in one or two hours than the Animorphs themselves did in months of missions.
*** It's so bad that Rachel, who has started her transformation into BloodKnight has to suppress the memories.
** And the Hork-Bajir are BewareTheNiceOnes writ large: an entire race of peaceful, not-very-smart herbivores that are covered in blades so that they could strip bark from trees. The Yeerks happened to think they would make excellent shock troops, and Aldrea, the lone Andalite on their planet, encouraged them to fight back, instigating a very long, bloody war. They lost that one, but the Hork-Bajir who escaped have "Free or dead!" as their motto, and have become very willing to fight and kill to protect what they have, as Dak Hamee sadly observed.
** Human-Controllers (Yeerk hosts) generally have public personae falling between "normal but caring human" (Chapman) and "FriendToAllLivingThings" (William Roger Tennant). The Sharing, "a Boys & Girls Club for everyone" responsible for a great deal of youth work and charity events, is a Yeerk front organization intended to recruit new Controllers.
* The book series ''Murphy's Lore'' takes place in a supernatural pub. The owner of said establishment is a kindly leprechaun named Padriac Moran, or Paddy for short. Normally, he's wise, gentle, and refuses to kill anything, including undead, because all life is sacred in his eyes. However, if you were to, say, [[spoiler:desecrate the memory of his dead wife on the anniversary of her death, which the devil unwisely chose to do, at which point he will have enough alcohol in him to pickle a sperm whale]], you will probably find yourself getting crushed as Paddy makes the floor beneath you turn into a mouth and bite you.
* [[Literature/TortallUniverse Daine]] is a nice young girl from the mountains with frizzy hair and a good hand with animals. Then tell her [[spoiler:that her beloved teacher is murdered. She'll reanimate dinosaur fossils, tear down a palace, specifically destroy tax rolls and imperial records to make the damage ''last'', and get the entire nation's rats to infest the ruins for a year and a day.]] In the next book, when she finally corners the man responsible, [[spoiler:not that Numair actually died, but still: She goes after him [[FullFrontalAssault buck-ass naked with a badger claw]] and ''tears his throat out''.]]
* [[spoiler:Ashfur]] from ''Literature/WarriorCats'' began literary life as a sweet, shy young apprentice. Then he became the series's most shining example of BreakTheCutie when [[spoiler:his best friend is abducted by humans (though only temporarily), his mother is brutally murdered, his father (if you believe the family trees) is killed in battle, he loses the love of his life to the son of the cat that killed his mom, and finally is forced to mentor their kit.]] He'd always been sweet, gentle, and friendly, but then in Book 5 of the Third Series, he [[spoiler:goes insane and tries to kill all three main characters, one of which is his own apprentice]]. No wonder his fangirls were upset.
* The Scolosaurus in ''[[Literature/TheFantasticFlyingJourney The Fantastic Dinosaur Adventure]]'' is extremely timid and terrified of humans, but when he is cornered by the Tyrannosaurus, he loses his temper. The results are rather bloody.
* In Creator/AgathaChristie's ''Literature/AndThenThereWereNone'', Vera Claythorne appears to be a [[NaiveEverygirl very sweet, sensible person]]... at first. [[spoiler: And if you're not scared by the fact that [[{{Yandere}} she killed her former pupil so her lover could inherit the child's estate]] four years before the events of the novel, just wait and see what [[MindRape four days of psychological torture]] does to her...]] The reason she is [[spoiler:the last person to die]] was that [[spoiler:the killer thought this seemingly sweet, sensible person was the worst criminal on the island, and he wanted her to suffer for as long as possible.]]
** This trope is very prevalent in Christie's novels. An extreme example occurs in [[spoiler:''Literature/DeathComesAsTheEnd'']].
* In ''Literature/TheNightsDawnTrilogy'' by Peter F. Hamilton, the always polite and civilised Edenists go to great lengths to avoid killing, but when Al Capone sends a force to conquer a nearby Edenist habitat it gets wiped out. To the man.
* Creator/DavidEddings seems to enjoy this one. [[Literature/TheBelgariad Belgarion]] is a generally nice guy who tries to do the right thing, and if you go after his family or murder some farmers, "the right thing" tends to involve you, his {{BFS}}, and a demonstration of why he's allowed to put "Godslayer" on his official letterhead. Polgara has spent most of her life as a doctor and taking care of children but can give you a matinee of your worst nightmare or turn you into a snake, and she isn't afraid to ShootTheDog. But for the gold, there's Aphrael and Sephrenia in ''The Tamuli'': upon learning that [[spoiler: Zalasta had been plotting to kill Aphrael for several centuries]], Aphrael begins planning to eat his heart, and Sephrenia enjoys breaking his spells (which hurts, oh sweet Edaemus it hurts) just a bit too much.
* [[Literature/EndersGame Ender Wiggin]] isn't "a sweet little kid", he's ''even sweeter''. He doesn't want to hurt anyone. He loves everyone he meets the way they love themselves. And if he determines someone should no longer be able to cause harm, he makes sure that someone will ''never'' be a threat, ''ever''. [[spoiler:He wasn't called the Xenocide, in the following novels, because he was the Formics' drinking buddy during the first book, after all.]]
** Remember that Ender is a nickname. [[MeaningfulName He got it for a reason.]]
* The [[CharacterTitle title society]] of the ''Freehold War'' series. Basically Literature/TheCulture when it was a kid. [[LovableSexManiac Sex-crazed]] [[WatchItStoned stoner]] [[LifeOfTheParty party animals]], the lot of them, and they always have room for company. And if you [[StopHavingFunGuy have enough a problem with that]] to invade their planet over it, they will [[KillSat blast]], [[ColonyDrop bomb]] and [[PersonOfMassDestruction terrorize]] ''yours'' back to the Stone Age.
* ''Literature/TheDarkElfTrilogy'' has Drizzt Do'Urden, who at first is depicted as the WideEyedIdealist with a [[FriendToAllLivingThings heart of gold]]. His enemies make the unfortunate mistake of assuming that he's weak and wind up having the living shit being beaten out of him in one of his biggest {{Unstoppable Rage}}s in the history of dark elves. And he's ''completely outnumbered and severely injured'' in most of these battles?

* Literature/HeraldsOfValdemar: Talia of Sensholding, Royal Advisor/Confidant/Babysitter and generally softhearted little ProperLady sort complete with empathic powers. Sure she has had some self-defense training as a Herald, but one would think that her [[CoolHorse Companion]] is a bigger threat than she is, right? Well, those who have pushed her too far would be glad to inform you otherwise... [[MindRape if they stop screaming long enough]].
** This is true of the nation of Valdemar as a whole. Their national motto is "There is No One True Way"; they were founded by refugees from despotism, and have never engaged in a war of aggression or expansion--their boundaries have been expanded only through colonizing uninhabited wilderness or through less developed or weaker states voluntarily joining themselves to Valdemar. This has led to some more aggressive and imperialistic countries thinking they are pushovers; this is not so.
* Kaitlynn in ''Privilege'' seems to be a Nice Girl, to the point where Ariana swears revenge on the girl who framed her...but when she fails to get her hands on the girl's inheritance, Kaitlynn snaps and reveals her true form: [[spoiler: she was guilty after all, and is in fact quite the vicious little cold-blooded killer.]] She then becomes [[spoiler: the series antagonist]].
* Mendoza from the [[Literature/TheCompanyNovels Company]] novels, left to her own devices, is a quiet botanist. Give her a love interest, and she turns spy. Kill him, and suddenly she starts throwing human heads around.
* The heroes of ''Literature/{{Redwall}}'' are cute fuzzy little woodland animals, who live happily in an Abbey devoted to upholding peace. And if you wrong them, ''they will fuck you up.''
** Two words: ''Badger Lords.'' Wise and caring leaders of Salamandastron. Get into a fight with them and the bloodrage takes over. A fully armored Badger Lord in a full-on bloodrage is capable of taking on a small army ''by himself''.
*** Or ''herself.'' The Badger Mothers of Redwall are gentle and loving, typically somewhat older badgers who typically watch after the young children in the Abbey. But if you threaten anyone, especially those children... well, you're going to find out pretty quickly that sweet older female badgers are just as capable of murderous bloodrage as the Badger Lords. Special points go to Cregga Rose Eyes, who used to be a Badger Lord--well, Lady, but she ruled Salamandastron, and was one of the most powerful warriors in the series, even after she went ''blind'' and took up residence in the Abbey. [[HandicappedBadass She's the one who offs]] [[spoiler:[[HandicappedBadass Raventail and (with Ellayo's help) Ascrod]]]] in ''Marlfox''.
* While Morrolan of ''Literature/{{Dragaera}}'' is portrayed in the main series as a LawfulNeutral (or [[BlackAndGrayMorality possibly]] LawfulEvil) JerkAss who [[PetTheDog pets the dog]] frequently, his presentation in the prequel novels is as this. The narration talks about him being a rather amiable guy during his period of ObliviousAdoption and had yet to lose his temper since everyone around him was wise enough not to do anything to elicit an angry Morrolan. When followers of a ReligionOfEvil kill some of his friends and torch part of his village, Morrolan's revenge consists of slaughtering three villages of these worshipers, man woman and child, and then [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu killing their god]].

* Cordelia Naismith of the Literature/VorkosiganSaga is a peace-loving egalitarian in a feudal, militaristic society. She's ethical, honorable, and loving; she sees the best in everyone and makes them want to live up to it. But if you insist on harassing her, she will run you down. And [[MamaBear if you threaten her child]], [[OffWithHisHead she will take your head home in a shopping bag]].
* Sadrao from ''Literature/BlackDogs'' is probably the kindest, politest, most caring, and definitely the most loyal character in the whole series. [[BerserkButton Don't ever threaten any of his wards or former wards, though...]] In the act of defending and protecting Lyra, he literally bites off a bandits face, tears apart an entire church, and is completely unapproachable by anyone. Even the person he's trying to protect has to take caution not to get caught in his berserker rage.
* Karl Sadeghi, from the Series/DoctorWho Literature/EighthDoctorAdventures book ''The Year of Intelligent Tigers'', is a shy male {{Meganekko}}, who occasionally [[SpeechImpediment stutters]]. He's a musician and a generally sweet guy, and although the Doctor knows how to annoy him (because they're [[HoYay so close]], and the Doctor really is very annoying), it seems his record for getting angry is a [[SarcasmMode whopping]] page and a half. Then he gets kidnapped and mistreated by [[TalkingAnimal talking tigers]]. So [[spoiler:he intentionally opens up a dam to drown a whole bunch of the poor, sapient tigers. To be fair, the tigers killed several people, but not all the ones he killed were dangerous]].
* Yumiko Shirasagi of ''Literature/DigitalDevilStory'' is very sweet and mischievous, a fun girl, really. She's also [[spoiler: the {{reincarnation}} of the goddess Izanami, and she teaches Loki a thing or two about the efficacy of fire.]]
* In Literature/WarOfTheDreaming, [[CrossoverCosmology Titania]] is one of the few characters unreservedly on the side of humans, and who respects them for their own merits, rather than seeing them as pawns or PunyEarthlings. She's behind many of the historical human victories over the Fae (even though some of those victories hurt her as well). She's also the Queen of Nemi James Fraser was talking about in ''The Golden Bough.'' The one annual kings were sacrificed to.
* In ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'', 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.
--> "Please don't shoot me, either." He turned the palm upward in a friendly shrug and let the astonished troopers stare at the only effect of the Force-blunted blasterfire: a faint curl of steam that trailed upward from his unmarked palm. "Let's try to end the day with nobody else dying, shall we?"
* In ''Princess of the Midnight Ball'', we get 12 princess, all very nice (although the eldest and love interest/ main character(sometimes) is snarky at time.) but I'm not talking about Rose. no, I'm talking about her sister, Lily. Lily is the second oldest- never complains about her lot in life, never gets snappy, very, very sweet- never violent in the least. And then she and her sisters get taken to the World Under Stone, with arranged marriages (with half demons) in mind. during Rose's one true love's rescue attempt, Lily gets her hands on a gun. turns out her own one true love taught her how to shoot. things don't end well for the attackers.
** Galen himself( the real main character) counts as well- he just wanted to be done with war, and is one of the nicest guys ever- even giving up his last bit of food to an old beggar. then Rose goes missing, and he's ready, armed with magic, a gun, and pure badassery.
* Daphne of Sisters Grimm is a sweet little 7-year-old, who loves everybody( even the big bad wolf.) she doesn't have an evil or violent bone in her body. but if you mess with your family, she will try her darndest to end you, and she's not the keeper of a ton of magical items for no reason. she causes a tornado. 'nuff said.
* Ryo, the namesake of ''Literature/TheLongingOfShiinaRyo'', wishes to inform you that it is unwise to ignore her. She will use an ASCII weapon of mass destruction if you do. And that's just her warm up. Gravity is her friend, not yours.
* [[spoiler:The Mule]] from ''Foundation and Empire''
** Also, Hari Seldon. This calm, rational professor of Mathematics will beat you up using Heliconian Twisting, in front of hundreds of students, if he doesn't like what you have to say.

* Mild-mannered science fiction author Peter Frigate of ''To Your Scattered Bodies Go'' by Philip José Farmer is not afraid to fight, he's afraid to unleash the rage within. People die when that happens.
* ''Literature/WearingTheCape'':
** Hope Corrigan, who at the age of 18 stands less than 5 feet tall and is self-described as an "underdeveloped teenage Tinkerbell", is one of the [[FlyingBrick strongest superheroes on the planet]] (in the top 10%, anyway). Also, though she spends a good deal of time worrying about accidentally hurting anyone, she opens an alarming can of Whupass at the end of the first book. In a later book, Megaton mentions that the media team is very good at maintaining Hope's image as a golden girl, so people don't often remember that she killed a large number of enemy supersoldiers in an invasion. In ''Small Town Heroes'' she nearly beats a supervillain to death with her bare hands after he pisses her off, and in ''Ronin Games'' she kills a dragon and later a ki-martial artist.
** And then there's Ozma, supposedly the Empress of Oz whom the books were written about. She is unfailingly polite at all times and prefers to solve problems by serving tea. She is also an accomplished SorcerousOverlord who ruled the Land of Oz (which is apparently far darker than the books portrayed) for over a hundred years. Her go-to method of eliminating threats is to [[BalefulPolymorph turn them into a hat]] (the most disturbing part is that her victims ''enjoy'' [[TheMindIsAPlaythingOfTheBody being a hat]] while transformed, less so when they're turned back), but she's not shy about resorting to more lethal methods. She also animated a doll for the sole purpose of acting as her spy and assassin, and secured Grendel's services by promising vengeance against the person who killed Grendel's family, and then once she found that person she immediately provided Grendel every tool she could to kill him.
* In Creator/EnidBlyton's ''Famous Five'' books [[TheChick Anne]] is a young lady in training. Occasionally she utilizes this trope.
** Likewise, Mary-Lou from ''Malory Towers'', although for her it takes the form of conquering (usually permanently) fears which previously would have paralysed her. Anything for a friend, especially for [[spoiler:Darrell Rivers.]]
* In a similar vein to Creator/EnidBlyton, Elinor M. Brent-Dyer's ''Literature/ChaletSchool'' series has Frieda Mensch and her cousin Marie von Eschenau, who make up half of Joey's Quartette and are both kind, gentle, sensible Tirolean girls, in contrast to the more HotBlooded Joey and Simone. However, Frieda's sharp tongue keeps juniors in line, and [[RichBitch Thekla von Stift]] finds out the hard way that making Marie angry is a bad idea, after she insults Marie's family, and Marie loses it and shakes her.
* Nick Chopper (the TinMan) in [[Literature/LandOfOz Baum's Oz]] novels. He is, hands-down, the sweetest, kindest guy you will ever encounter. He cried himself rusted after accidentally stepping on a bug because he regretted taking innocent life. When it comes to creatures ''threatening'' innocent lives, or those of his TrueCompanions? The axe comes out and heads start rolling. Baum even lampshades it in the second book by stating that Nick "fights like a Roman Gladiator."
* [[Literature/GauntsGhosts Ibram Gaunt]] can be considered an example of this. By Imperium standards, he's pretty reasonable. Get someone killed through incompetence or stupidity, however, and he will not hesitate to make an example of you.
** Interestingly enough Literature/CiaphasCain (of all people) has a similar BerserkButton:
---> "Men have been shot for that kind of carelessness - some by me."
* At the beginning of Literature/TheTomorrowSeries, the main characters are a bunch of nice, normal, reasonably-harmless Australian small-town and farm/ranch kids. When they find their country's been invaded and their families have either been killed or rounded up and imprisoned...that's their LetsGetDangerous moment, and they eventually become guerrillas with an international reputation, and tops on the enemy's "better dead" list.
* In ''Mario and the Magician'' by T. Mann, the magician Cippola uses his powers on a nice sweet waiter Mario. He forces Mario to reveal whom he is in love with, and then, makes him believe that ''he'' is that girl and that Mario should kiss "her" - all this during the show with hundreds of people watching. Then Mario is snapped out of his trance and realises he just kissed Cippola instead of his girl in front of all those people (who are ''amused'' by his ordeal) and is basically humiliated into the ground. Sounds sad? Well, directly after that, [[spoiler: Mario shoots Cippola dead.]] End of story.
* Stephen King and Peter Straub's collaborative novel ''Literature/TheTalisman'' gives us Wolf, a [[GentleGiant friendly]] and [[NiceGuy sweet]] (if a bit slow) young shepherd of the Territories who immediately takes to twelve-year-old Jack and adopts him as his new "herd". He's also a [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent werewolf]]. And ''god help you'' if you decide to [[BerserkButton hurt]] [[PapaWolf Jack]].
* Patrick Rothfuss even has a book named after it. In ''Literature/TheWiseMansFear'' it is stated that "There are three things all wise men fear: the sea in storm, a night with no moon, and the anger of a gentle man."
* ''Literature/TrappedOnDraconica'': King Alister is a good man with great patience but don't push him. Official art shows him to be very scary when administering justice.
* ''Literature/TheKaneChronicles'' in a similar vein to Percy Jackson has many nice characters who, when fully pissed are terrifying. Carter Kane and Amos Kane being examples
* In The Adventurer and The Wanderer by Mika Waltari, Antti is a GentleGiant and usually very friendly and seems like a quite harmless person. But he's surprisingly cunning in addition to his incredible body strength, and if you fail to take heed of his gentle warnings you may find yourself in a bit of a pickle. By which I mean dead.
* Nice, neglected side-hero Edilio Escobar finally has a go at the ignorant main characters about how little he's appreciated in FEAR.
* In the Spin-off series ''Literature/TheHardyBoys Casefiles,'' they finally started to split up the brothers' personalities. Joe became a very easygoing, joking, flirty, friendly 17-year old. However, do '''not''' mention the fact that [[spoiler: his girlfriend Iola was blown up in a car bomb by terrorists]] (which was the plot of the first book, ''Dead on Target.'') Even ''Frank'' had to learn this the hard way.
* Kendra Sorenson from {{Literature/Fablehaven}}. A sweet teenage girl who reads books to children. Hates to touch weapons. Not all that brave. [[spoiler: Beheaded the King of Demons, a virtual god, when he attacked her boyfriend.]] Not to mention she's a great ActionSurvivor.
* [[TheHero Mediochre himself]] in the ''Literature/MediochreQSethSeries'' is [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold pretty grumpy]], but he's a thoughtful enough guy, and unlike [[TheLancer Joseph Carrion]] he prefers to solve problems [[GuileHero with words]] [[NonActionSnarker rather than fighting]]. He doesn't even pick up a weapon until the end of the first book, and then it's only to [[spoiler: threaten [[ArchEnemy Maelstrom]] into surrendering]]. [[BerserkButton Then Maelstrom tries to destroy a dragon egg in front of him]]. [[spoiler: Joseph has to [[PunchedAcrossTheRoom punch him across the cavern]] just to make him ''stop shooting''.]]

* [[TheHero Phenix]] from ''Literature/OfFearAndFaith''. He's very sweet and protective of his friends, and a total pushover (especially with women) and he hates to fight. That said, that doesn't mean he ''can't'' fight, and he [[PlayingWithFire really doesn't]] [[ManOnFire take kindly]] to people threatening his friends.
* Towards the end of the Literature/GemmaDoyle trilogy, Gemma's brother Tom has been kidnapped by the Rakshana, in order to force Gemma to hand over magic powers. This is after a ''long'' book of being harassed, provoked, threatened, and blackmailed by the Rakshana, and this is the last straw. Gemma tells them, in no uncertain terms, that so far, she has played nice because her brother is still alive. If he dies, there would be nothing stopping ''her'' from killing ''them.'' Initially, the Rakshana scoff... not realizing that Gemma is ''very'' good at using her MasterOfIllusion magic. Cue Gemma [[CurbStompBattle curb-stomping]] the entire organization ''by herself.''
* ''Literature/FlightToTheLonesomePlace'': When Anna Maria Rosalita is mad, watch out. She'll take being held prisoner and starved, but threaten her friends...
* The protagonists of Creator/LEModesittJR's ''Literature/SagaOfRecluce'' novels are ''generally'' fairly nice, reasonable folks - your woodcarvers, your smiths, your aliens dropped onto a hostile world of magic who just want to be left alone. Then they get pushed a little too far, and suddenly your nice, beautiful city of white melts like a tapioca sculpture in the oven. Or half of your island slips into the sea.
* ''Literature/FellowMan'', written in Norway in 1929 has the protagonist ''Ragnhild'', a housewife and mother seemingly not capable of thinking a bad thought, and known to be kind to everyone. When the antagonist of the story, the MagnificentBastard Didrik pushes her too far, after she has tried to redeem him a number of times, [[AnAxeToGrind she conveniently kills him with an axe]]. Being the benevolent heroine, she immediately goes to face the consequences and gives herself up.
* In Creator/RobertAHeinlein's ''Literature/HaveSpaceSuitWillTravel'', the Mother Thing is gentle, soft-spoken, and eternally pleasant, with a small, frail-looking body and enormous lemur-like eyes. She also is fully capable of building a pair of bombs to destroy an alien base under her captors' noses and kill all of its personnel to guarantee her, Kip, and Peewee's escape.
* In ''Literature/WorldWarZ'', a quiet Palestinian father goes PapaWolf on his son in order get him to go with the rest of the family to the Israeli quarantine zone, instead of blowing his life away by becoming a suicide bomber.
--> "He knew that fear was the only weapon he had left to save my life--and if I didn’t fear the threat of the plague, then dammit, I was going to fear ''him''!"
** A [[MamaBear suburban housewife]] allegedly tearing a zombie's head off to protect her children, and an old nun described as 5 foot, 100lbs defending her Sunday school class from a horde with an iron candlestick taller than she was (who later joins the Army!).
* ''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 child's remains out of the 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.
%% Jem Carstairs from ''Literature/TheInfernalDevices''.
* The Literature/CharlieParkerSeries has two notable examples:
** Angel, who can be a bit mean and abrasive but is generally a sweetheart who gives the impression of a man who wouldn't hurt a fly, is not one to be trifled with. Being a woman will not stop him from killing you, even when two characters with substantially higher body counts refuse. Hurt him personally, and he will not rest until you are dead. Get involved in any way with child pornography or prostitution? You might as well get started on digging your own grave right now, 'cause he's gonna be after you.
** Then there's Rachel, Charlie's girlfriend who is cast firmly as TheChick for most of the series. But she's smart, and quick, and don't bother even trying to lay a hand on her, because it will not end well. [[spoiler: especially if she's pregnant.]]
* 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 words than swords and guns? Well, they can afford to be this way for a reason.
* Peeta Mellark is TheHeart of ''Literature/TheHungerGames'' series, a kind and gentle person who prefers diplomacy to violence and who likes to paint and to bake. He is also skilled with a knife and a spear, has a body count of at least three people in the books (four counting Foxface and possibly one or two at the Cornucopia, although his first known kill was a MercyKill), is a wrestler with a great deal of strength and when angry he is definitely deadly. Which does not bode well for [[spoiler:Katniss after he's been subjected to MindRape designed to make him fear her and want her dead]].
* ''Literature/MichaelVey'': The titular teenager tries not to hurt people more than necessary in self-defense ([[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Zeus]] even tells an adversary that he's lucky Michael is a good person), and even makes a habit of adopting repentant enemies as allies. However, when an Elgen guard gloats about making his captive mother perform a belly dance for water, Michael shocks him unconscious, and his friends try to shake him out of it to make sure he won't kill the offender.
* Literature/OddThomas is probably one of the nicest heroes in contemporary literature; unfailingly polite, respectful of everyone, great with kids, and generally tries to avoid violence. He also [[ISeeDeadPeople can see the spirits of the lingering dead]], is an unshakeable {{Determinator}}, and if he finds out that you've done evil or are planning some, he will bring you down as sure as the turn of the world.
* Dylan from ''Literature/MaximumRide'' is normally a pretty nice and quiet guy, but [[spoiler:when he catches Max and Fang together,]] well... [[UnstoppableRage snapped is putting it lightly.]]
* ''Literature/TheBadUnicornTrilogy'': '''[[spoiler:Moki]]''' of all people gets ''very'' angry in the second book when he learns that [[spoiler:Loki tricked him]]. In the third book, he again proves to be just as capable a fighter as the other heroes.

* Kulingile from ''{{Literature/Temeraire}}'' is much more easy-going than most other dragons. He's also the second biggest dragon in the series (and the biggest that can fly), has oversized talons, a spiked tail, and repeatedly turns crowds of humans that threaten his captain into LudicrousGibs.
** Lily is another dragon. When she is on the ground and among friends, she is a complete sweetheart and chronic snuggle addict. However, in the centre of a ground attack formation, she is an unholy terror, whose acid saliva dissolves warships.
* ''Literature/TheHollows'' has so many examples. Rachel is nice enough, but if pushed far enough [[BlackMagic she'll use any method available]] [[PragmaticHero to protect her own.]] Ivy, her roommate, has a vampire's instincts to protect the weak and sick and volunteers with children at the hospital, but she was raised by Piscarey and is extremely protective of Rachel. Jenks is the nicest pixie you'll ever meet, and he'll lobotomize you if you ever harm his family. Ceri is as nice and unassuming as you'll get and is capable of curbstomping a man who curbstomped Rachel. Suffice to say, GoodIsNotSoft in this series.
* ''Literature/CutAndRun'': Kelly Abbott is a sweetheart. He's a medic, he works with underprivileged kids, and Nick has flat out called him {{The Heart}} of Sidewinder. He's also the member of Sidewinder none of them have beaten in a brawl, despite being the smallest, held his ground against a trained hitman, and once suggested [[ItMakesSenseInContext raiding a dead body for its liver.]]

* Renee from ''Literature/AllForTheGame'' is a mediator and puts her free time into charity projects. She also has a DarkAndTroubledPast and is [[spoiler: an accomplished knife fighter]].
* Boxer from ''Literature/AnimalFarm'' is a kind, strong, and hard-working horse whose heart is figuratively bigger than his muscles. But he can be a force to be reckoned with if he's pushed to the limit. An example is when [[BigBad Napoleon]] lets his guard dogs attack Boxer to vent their blood lust on. Boxer slams his hoof down and nearly breaks a dog's spine before Napoleon tells the usually kind horse to let the dog go.

* ''Literature/TheWanderingInn'': Erin is very friendly, and hates killing even when it's necessary to save her life. But when she ''does'' decide to fight, she doesn't hesitate.
-->'''Erin''': I don’t enjoy it. I hope I never will. But I can kill things. Other monsters, or even people. Not just dead people either. If it came down to it, I could kill someone trying to kill me.
** {{Inverted}} with Ryota, who, despite being an extremely unfriendly character, discovers she doesn't have any killer instinct when she goes DungeonCrawling.
* Horace of ''Literature/RangersApprentice'' is a BigEater, and as nice and kind of a person as you could ever hope to meet, both a literal and metaphorical KnightInShiningArmor who fully believes in the dictates of chivalry. He's also a MasterSwordsman with few peers and [[GoodIsNotSoft if you hurt his friends, he will have no mercy]].
* In ''Literature/TheThreeHostages'', the normally mild-mannered Mary Hannay gets ferocious in defense of the third hostage, a small boy. During the climactic confrontation with the villain, he laughs in the male heroes' faces, but Mary frightens the life out of him.
* ''Literature/VillainsByNecessity'': Despite the fact that Robin is a good-natured centaur, happens to be afraid of many of the dangers out there, [[spoiler:and is Mizzamir's spy]], the wandering minstrel does have his moments, like when the group gets attacked by skeletal lizardmen - one of the skeleton lizards grabs the centaur's instrument to try to smash it and gets on the wrong end of a literal CurbStompBattle. Then there was the time that [[spoiler:Mizzamir]] placed a spell of holding on the group, save for Robin, who has, by this time, gone through a [[spoiler:FaceHeelTurn / HeelFaceTurn]], and thus Robin unleashes a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown on him, thus distracting [[spoiler:Mizzamir]] long enough for the other villains to get free of the spell on them. Also, he puts up a decent fight during the final battle.

* In ''Literature/ChanceAndChoicesAdventures'', the Williams family and most of their friends are some of the nicest people you'll ever meet who go out of their way to be good even to absolutely terrible people, but God help you if you push them too far. Special mention goes to Noah Swift Hawk nearly ''scalping'' Gus after the latter helped burn down the Williams farm.
* Under normal circumstances, Azusa of ''LightNovel/IveBeenKillingSlimesForThreeHundredYearsAndMaxedOutMyLevel'' would rather ''not'' use her absurd levels of power, to avoid causing collateral damage and attracting yet more trouble from the aftermath. When push comes to shove, however, she will deliver a CurbStompBattle to anyone and everything she needs to.
* 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 who finds out what happens when you oppose his ideals instantly comes to regret doing so.
* ''Literature/TheCityOfBrass'': Muntadhir is a pleasant MrViceGuy who enjoys good food, good wine, and [[ReallyGetsAround good company]], but shocks even his brother with how ruthless he can be in fulfilling his duties as Crown Prince. His sanguine nature becomes outright nasty when he feels wronged: when he's estranged from Ali, he deliberately sabotages Ali's attempt to defuse a deadly race riot, just to spite him.
* ''Literature/ScavengerAlliance'': Braden may be the gentlest soul in any sector of inhabited space. A pilot/ cleaner hoping to retrain as a nurse, he's an ActualPacifist who wouldn't harm a living soul even to save his own life. He's also going through hell to reach Beta sector and take care of his orphaned nieces and nephews and [[spoiler:''beat Shark to death'' when he tried to kill Phoenix.]]
* In Creator/EdgarAllanPoe's ''Literature/TheCaskOfAmontillado'', Montresor claims that he patiently bore a "thousand injuries" from Fortunato until Fortunato finally went too far, driving him to scheme a terrible revenge. Of course Montresor may not be the most reliable narrator.
* In Mario Puzo's novel which started the whole ''Film/TheGodfather'' phenomenon, we are introduced to Felix Bocchicchio. Mr. Bocchicchio rejects his Family even more emphatically than Michael Corleone ever did his. He put himself through law school; married a nice girl and had three lovely kids; and set out to make an honest living. Sadly, Felix found that being a honest lawyer may not be an oxymoron but in 1940s NYC, it wouldn't feed his (real) family either. Given a shady way out, he took it... and became the FallGuy for his three partners-in-crime. He served three of five years, was released, went home, and [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge shot down his ex-partners]] [[TranquilFury in cold blood.]] (When Don Vito needed someone to [[TakingTheHeat take the rap]] for Michael's [[DeadlyEuphemism "making his bones,"]] though, DeathRow inmate Felix agreed to do so in exchange for the Corleones providing for his soon-to-be widow and his children for the rest of their lives. So you could say Felix's story has a BittersweetEnding, if a [[HighVoltageDeath shock]][[StealthPun ing]] one.)
* ''Literature/TheHeartstrikers'': Julius is often disparagingly called "the Nice Dragon;" in a species of predators, he's a pacifist. It takes a ''long'' time for more traditional, violent dragons to realize that messing with him is a bad idea for two reasons. First, he's a MagneticHero with plenty of powerful friends who ''will'' kill on his behalf; Julius stops them when he can, but he's not always around. Second, he has a surprisingly sharp political mind and is great at creating mutually beneficial alliances or taking advantage of opportunities. [[spoiler:He actually usurps his mother in a brilliant masterstroke that involved him saving her life three times (putting her in debt to him), lets one of his closest allies usurp another clan, and the only reason she survived despite being StupidEvil is that he absolutely refused to kill her]]. Because he doesn't use his skills for violence, everyone else assumes he's weak and lazy, coasting by on the hard work of others. This lets him catch quite a few dangerous people who really should know better off guard.
* ''Literature/RavellingWrath'': Yali spends the entire first half of the book trying to make sure everyone gets along and no one has to hurt each other, even when the gods are trying to make them fight. But when [[spoiler:Morrow uses his mind powers nonconsensually on Rinn]], Yali beats him so badly that they actually have to go to extra effort later to bring him a healing potion so he doesn't ''die''.

* ''Literature/WearingTheCape'': Hope Corrigan, who at the age of 18 stands less than 5 feet tall and is self-described as an "underdeveloped teenage Tinkerbell", is one of the [[FlyingBrick strongest superheroes on the planet]] (in the top 10%, anyway). Also, though she spends a good deal of time worrying about accidentally hurting anyone, she opens an alarming can of Whupass at the end of the first book. In a later book, Megaton mentions that the media team is very good at maintaining Hope's image as a golden girl, so people don't often remember that she killed a large number of enemy supersoldiers in an invasion. In ''Small Town Heroes'' she nearly beats a supervillain to death with her bare hands after he pisses her off, and in ''Ronin Games'' she kills a dragon and later a ki-martial artist.

* In ''Literature/WearingTheCape'', Hope Corrigan, who at the age of 18 stands less than 5 feet tall and is self-described as an "underdeveloped teenage Tinkerbell", is one of the [[FlyingBrick strongest superheroes on the planet]] (in the top 10%, anyway). Also, though she spends a good deal of time worrying about accidentally hurting anyone, she opens an alarming can of Whupass at the end of the story.

* ''Literature/GriffinRanger'' has a couple of griffins that fit this to a T.

** And then there is Oreg, who seems to be a frightened youth of seventeen, and is very polite. Only that he's actually a powerful mage. And has been trained as assassin. He's still TheWoobie, as he's an immortal slave, bound by magic too powerful even for him to break.[[spoiler: He's freed when Ward kills him at his own request, and later returns as a ''dragon''.]] Fortunately, Ward is nice to ''everyone'', otherwise that could have ended badly.

** From the same book (''Literature/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.

** Aera White-Shoulders, daughter of the main character Harrell, is a monstrously big griffin even as a teenager but is really very nice, adopting a young griffin imprisoned with her, Voll Golden-Nape, as a foster child. Threaten Voll, however...and suddenly you have a seven foot tall griffin turn into TheBerserker right in your face.

** Mr Weasley also counts. According to Ron, the one time Fred and George tried to get Ron to make an Unbreakable Vow (which actually ''kills you'' if you break it) with them, Mr Weasley caught them, and went so ballistic that Fred and George were terrified into never doing it again.

** [[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]], not to mention a highly skilled MagnificentBastard.

** Professor Sprout is every bit as friendly as HufflepuffHouse is renowned for. She is still a fully trained witch with encyclopedic knowledge of many very dangerous plants. [[spoiler:Her first act during the Battle of Hogwarts was to have her seventh year students start throwing potted mandrakes out the windows. The scream of a mature mandrake is instantly fatal to anyone who hears it.]]

* Edmond Dantes from ''Literature/TheCountOfMonteCristo''. Edmond was a guy who had everything going for him, then lost ''everything'' thanks to being screwed over by whom he thought were his friends. What ensues is a gigantic BatmanGambit to take revenge on every last one of them and their families.

** Not only is he a [[GoodShepherd sincerely faithful]] [[SaintlyChurch man of God]], [[RealMenLoveJesus Michael]] is an incredibly sweet, even-tempered NiceGuy. That being said, he is also a KnightInShiningArmor who slings a badass [[CoolSword holy sword that that can rip through evil magic (and just about anything else) like it was tissue paper]]. Do not mess with Michael. ''Ever''. And ''especially'' don't [[PapaWolf threaten his family]]. This applies to all of the Knights, actually...

* 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 [[TheGoodKingdom Mage-King]]. But if you go too far, he won't hesitate to take you down.

** Heck, messing with Lady Mara is generally a VERY bad idea. Consider the way she snaps in ''Mistress of the Empire'', when she [[spoiler: has her spymaster eradicate an entire order of assassins because they killed her son, another not-yet-born child of hers and very nearly herself.]]

*** For the matter of that, it really is ''not'' wise to hurt Treecats when a Sphinxian is near. Every Sphinxian will dedicate themselves to making absolutely sure that you are consigned to a level of hell deeper then Dante ever thought of.
* The nicest character in ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'' is Perrin Aybara, a henpecked husband, that's basically his wife's bitch. In one memorable scene after [[spoiler:his wife has been kidnapped]] he chops off an Aiel's hand, orders an Aes Sedai to heal the stump, and then tells the Aiel that unless he talks Perrin will cut off his other hand and his feet, and then dump him into a town, so the Aiel can beg for a living. Then he walks away.

** Rand isn't necessarily a very nice person (being driven slowly insane, having people wanting to control you and having the voice of Lews 'Kinslayer' Therin babbling away in your head would drive most people to more ruthless tendencies), but if you hurt someone he cares about or is related to someone he cares about, you will find out ''exactly'' why people fear the Dragon Reborn and he will wipe you from time itself so comprehensively that even the Dark One himself can't save you.
* The ''Literature/BetsyTheVampireQueen'' series gives us Laura, daughter of Satan and one of the nicest people you could meet, since she's trying to be an AntiAntiChrist. Problem is, when she gets mad, she breaks out a sword of hellfire and slaughters everything in the area. Those instincts are a ''bitch'' to keep restrained.

Not only that, but the Culture is basically a civilisation of space hippies, whose [[PlanetOfHats Hat]] is "Make love, not war": they are so reluctant to go to war that it takes years-long debate among its 30.000+ ''billion'' citizens to makes the Culture go to war. When the [[ScaryDogmaticAliens Idiran Empire]] crossed the line in ''Literature/ConsiderPhlebas'', the war that followed caused the destruction of more that 14,000 space colonies, the death of over 850 ''billion'' intelligent beings, and the destruction of more than 50 [[EarthShatteringKaboom planets]] and 6 ''stars'': When you encounter space hippies, remember to be polite, courteous, and do not accuse them of being a threat to your way of life: if pissed off, they will blow up your [[ApocalypseHow home solar system]]. They may be softly spoken, but they carry ''really'' big sticks.\\\

* The Mord Sith in the ''Literature/SwordOfTruth'' series are the kindest, gentlest, and most sensitive girls that can be found. They make the best torturers once they've been [[BreakTheCutie broken]], because the greatest cruelty comes from the greatest kindness.

*** Cassie is interesting, because you don't ''have'' to get her into an UnstoppableRage to get bad results. David's fate? That was cold rationalism; she was crying as he got stuck. For another example, the fate of Visser Four's host.
** Likewise the Chee - immensely strong androids, and hard-wired pacifists. Except the one time Erek was freed from that part of his programming, and proceeded to wipe out an entire strike force single-handed. It's mentioned at some point that he did more damage in one or two hours than the Animorphs themselves did in months of missions.

* [[spoiler:Ashfur]] from ''Literature/WarriorCats'' began literary life as a sweet, shy young apprentice. Then he became the series's most shining example of BreakTheCutie, when [[spoiler:his best friend is abducted by humans (though only temporarily), his mother is brutally murdered, his father (if you believe the family trees) is killed in battle, he loses the love of his life to the son of the cat that killed his mom, and finally is forced to mentor their kit.]] He'd always been sweet, gentle, and friendly, but then in Book 5 of the Third Series, he [[spoiler:goes insane and tries to kill all three main characters, one of which is his own apprentice]]. No wonder his fangirls were upset.

* In Creator/AgathaChristie's ''Literature/AndThenThereWereNone'', Vera Claythorne appears to be a [[NaiveEverygirl very sweet, sensible person]]... at first. [[spoiler: And if you're not scared by the fact that [[{{Yandere}} she killed her former pupil so her lover could inherit the child's estate]] four years before the events of the novel, just wait and see what [[MindRape four days of psychological torture]] does to her...]] The reason she is [[spoiler:the last person to die]] was because [[spoiler:the killer thought this seemingly sweet, sensible person was the worst criminal on the island, and he wanted her to suffer for as long as possible.]]

* Creator/DavidEddings seems to enjoy this one. [[Literature/TheBelgariad Belgarion]] is a generally nice guy who tries to do the right thing, and if you go after his family or murder some farmers, "the right thing" tends to involve you, his {{BFS}}, and a demonstration of why he's allowed to put "Godslayer" on his official letterhead. Polgara has spent most of her life as a doctor and taking care of children, but can give you a matinee of your worst nightmare or turn you into a snake, and she isn't afraid to ShootTheDog. But for the gold, there's Aphrael and Sephrenia in ''The Tamuli'': upon learning that [[spoiler: Zalasta had been plotting to kill Aphrael for several centuries]], Aphrael begins planning to eat his heart, and Sephrenia enjoys breaking his spells (which hurts, oh sweet Edaemus it hurts) just a bit too much.

** This is true of the nation of Valdemar as a whole. Their national motto is "There is No One True Way"; they were founded by refugees from despotism, and have never engaged in a war of aggression or expansion--their boundries have been expanded only through colonizing uninhabited wilderness or through less developed or weaker states voluntarily joining themselves to Valdemar. This has led to some more aggressive and imperialistic countries thinking they are pushovers; this is not so.

* While Morrolan of ''Literature/{{Dragaera}}'' is portrayed in the main series as a LawfulNeutral (or [[BlackAndGrayMorality possibly]] LawfulEvil) JerkAss who [[PetTheDog pets the dog]] frequently, his presentation in the prequel novels is as this. The narration talks about him being a rather amiable guy during his period of ObliviousAdoption, and had yet to lose his temper, since everyone around him was wise enough not to do anything to elicit an angry Morrolan. When followers of a ReligionOfEvil kill some of his friends and torch part of his village, Morrolan's revenge consists of slaughtering three villages of these worshipers, man woman and child, and then [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu killing their god]].

* Sadrao from ''Literature/BlackDogs'' is probably the kindest, politest, most caring and definitely the most loyal character in the whole series. [[BerserkButton Don't ever threaten any of his wards or former wards, though...]] In the act of defending and protecting Lyra, he literally bites off a bandits face, tears apart an entire church and is completely unapproachable by anyone. Even the person he's trying to protect has to take caution not to get caught in his berserker rage.

* In ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'', 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.

* In ''Princess of the Midnight Ball'', we get 12 princess, all very nice( although the eldest and love interest/ main character(sometimes) is snarky at time.) but I'm not talking about Rose. no, I'm talking about her sister, Lily. Lily is the second oldest- never complains about her lot in life, never gets snappy, very, very sweet- never violent in the least. And then she and her sisters get taken to the World Under Stone, with arranged marriages ( with half demons) in mind. during Rose's one true love's rescue attempt, Lily gets her hands on a gun. turns out her own one true love taught her how to shoot. things don't end well for the attackers.

* Daphne of Sisters Grimm is a a sweet little 7 year old, who loves everybody( even the big bad wolf.) she doesn't have an evil or violent bone in her body. but if you mess with your family, she will try her darndest to end you, and she's not the keeper of a ton of magical items for no reason. she causes a tornado. 'nuff said.

* In Creator/EnidBlyton's ''Famous Five'' books [[TheChick Anne]] is a young lady in training. Occasionally she ulitizes this trope.

* [[Literature/GauntsGhosts Ibram Gaunt]] cam be considered an example of this. By Imperium standards, he's pretty reasonable. Get someone killed through incompetence or stupidity, however, and he will not hesitate to make an example of you.

* In ''Mario and the Magician'' by T. Mann, the magician Cippola uses his powers on a nice sweet waiter Mario. He forces Mario to reveal whom he is in love with, and then, makes him believe that ''he'' is that girl and that Mario should kiss "her" - all this during the show with hundreds people watching. Then Mario is snapped out of his trance and realises he just kissed Cippola instead of his girl in front of all those people (who are ''amused'' by his ordeal) and is basically humiliated into the ground. Sounds sad? Well, directly after that, [[spoiler: Mario shoots Cippola dead.]] End of story.

* In Creator/RobertAHeinlein's ''Literature/HaveSpaceSuitWillTravel'', the Mother Thing is gentle, soft spoken and eternally pleasant, with a small, frail looking body and enormous lemur like eyes. She also is fully capable of building a pair of bombs to destroy an alien base under her captors' noses and kill all of its personnel to guarantee her, Kip and Peewee's escape.

* ''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.

** Angel, who can be a bit mean and abrasive but is generally a sweetheart who gives the impression of a man who wouldn't hurt a fly, is not one to be trifled with. Being a woman will not stop him killing you, even when two characters with substantially higher body counts refuse. Hurt him personally, and he will not rest until you are dead. Get involved in any way with child pornography or prostitution? You might as well get started on digging your own grave right now, 'cause he's gonna be after you.

* Peeta Mellark is TheHeart of ''Literature/TheHungerGames'' series, a kind and gentle person who prefers diplomacy to violence and who likes to paint and to bake. He is also skilled with a knife and a spear, has a body count of at least three people in the books (four counting Foxface and possibly one or two at the Cornucopia, although hist first known kill was a MercyKill), is a wrestler with a great deal of strength and when angry he is definitely deadly. Which does not bode well for [[spoiler:Katniss after he's been subjected to MindRape designed to make him fear her and want her dead]].

** Lily is another dragon. When she is on the ground and among friends, she is a complete sweetheart and chronic snuggle addict. However, in the centre of a ground attack formation she is an unholy terror, whose acid saliva dissolves warships.
* ''Literature/TheHollows'' has so many examples. Rachel is nice enough, but if pushed far enough [[BlackMagic she'll use any method available]] [[PragmaticHero to protect her own.]] Ivy, her roommate, has a vampire's instincts to protect the weak and sick and volunteers with children at the hospital, but she was raised by Piscarey and is extremely protective of Rachel. Jenks is the nicest pixie you'll ever meet, and he'll lobotomize you if you ever harm his family. Ceri is as nice and unassuming as you'll get, and is capable of curbstomping a man who curbstomped Rachel. Suffice to say, GoodIsNotSoft in this series.

** Adolin, Dalinar's son is a cheerful sort, who comes off as somewhat foppish. However he is also a skilled duelist and warrior who carries 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.]]

* ''Literature/VillainsByNecessity'': Despite the fact that Robin is a good-natured centaur, happens to be afraid of many of the dangers out there, [[spoiler:and is Mizzamir's spy]], the wandering minstrel does have his moments, like when the group gets attacked by skeletal lizardmen - one of the skeleton lizards grabs the centaur's instrument to try to smash it, and gets on the wrong end of a literal CurbStompBattle. Then there was the time that [[spoiler:Mizzamir]] placed a spell of holding on the group, save for Robin, who has, by this time, gone through a [[spoiler:FaceHeelTurn / HeelFaceTurn]], and thus Robin unleashes a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown on him, thus distracting [[spoiler:Mizzamir]] long enough for the other villains to get free of the spell on them. Also, he puts up a decent fight during the final battle.

* In Mario Puzo's novel which started the whole ''Film/TheGodfather'' phenomenon, we are introduced to Felix Bocchicchio. Mr. Bocchicchio rejects his Family even more emphatically than Michael Corleone ever did his. He put himself through law school; married a nice girl and had three lovely kids; and set out to make an honest living. Sadly, Felix found that being a honest lawyer may not be an oxymoron, but in 1940's NYC it wouldn't feed his (real) family either. Given a shady way out, he took it... and became the FallGuy for his three partners-in-crime. He served three of five years, was released, went home, and [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge shot down his ex-partners]] [[TranquilFury in cold blood.]] (When Don Vito needed someone to [[TakingTheHeat take the rap]] for Michael's [[DeadlyEuphemism "making his bones,"]] though, DeathRow inmate Felix agreed to do so in exchange for the Corleones providing for his soon-to-be widow and his children for the rest of their lives. So you could say Felix's story has a BittersweetEnding, if a [[HighVoltageDeath shock]][[StealthPun ing]] one.)
* ''Literature/TheHeartstrikers'': Julius is often disparagingly called "the Nice Dragon;" in a species of predators, he's a pacifist. It takes a ''long'' time for more traditional, violent dragons to realize that messing with him is a bad idea for two reasons. First, he's a MagneticHero with plenty of powerful friends who ''will'' kill on his behalf; Julius stops them when he can, but he's not always around. Second, he has a surprisingly sharp political mind and is great at creating mutually beneficial alliances or taking advantage of opportunities. [[spoiler:He actually usurps his mother in a brilliant masterstroke that involved him saving her life three times (putting her in debt to him), lets one of his closest allies usurp another clan, and the only reason she survived despite being StupidEvil is because he absolutely refused to kill her]]. Because he doesn't use his skills for violence, everyone else assumes he's weak and lazy, coasting by on the hard work of others. This lets him catch quite a few dangerous people who really should know better off guard.

** [[CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass Neville Longbottom]], who went from bumbling, {{Adorkable}} NiceGuy to leading a resistance out of Hogwarts, and a MemeticBadass to boot.

** And then there's Grover. He's a clumsy, {{Adorkable}} satyr most of the time...but when he needs to be, he can be incredibly badass, especially after he gets the gift of [[HellIsThatNoise panic]].

*** Special mention to the Librarian. Normally a calm, amiable ape interested in Library maintenance, cataloging, and bananas. Call him a monkey, and he'll rearrange your limbs. Convince him you're a threat, and he'll [[DeathFromAbove drop lightly onto your shoulders and try to unscrew your head]].

* ''Literature/TheHollows'' has so many examples. Rachel is nice enough, but if pushed far enough [[BlackMagic she'll use any method available]] [[PragmaticHero to protect her own.]] Ivy, her roommate, has a vampire's instincts to protect the weak and sick and volunteers with children at the hospital, but she was raised by Piscarey and is extremely protective of Rachel. Jenks is the nicest pixie you'll ever meet, and he'll labotimize you if you ever harm his family. Ceri is as nice and unassuming as you'll get, and is capable of curbstomping a man who curbstomped Rachel. Suffice to say, GoodIsNotSoft in this series.

* FlightToTheLonesomePlace: When Anna Maria Rosalita is mad, watch out. She'll take being held prisoner and starved, but threaten her friends...