History Main / SpeedDemon

A Speed Demon is a character defined by their preference for going fast. This can in any of the three categories:

They may be a LastSecondShowoff. See also BadassDriver, BadassBiker and BikerBabe. In settings with superpowers, a Speed Demon is also likely to have SuperSpeed.

* ''Film/SpeedRacer'': Speed has had a love of racing since he daydreamed about being a racer just like his brother Rex. Speed even goes as far as saying that racing is a religion in his family.
* ''Film/TalladegaNightsTheBalladOfRickyBobby'': Ricky-Bobby ''loves'' going fast. [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome Usually this wasn't an issue for his racing career until he ended up crashing a car due to driving too fast when he didn't need to]]. The rest of the movie is him regaining his love for racing.

* A person who gets a thrill out of moving fast, whether they are running at high speeds or operating a very fast vehicle. They are likely to be a ChallengeSeeker or SpiritedCompetitor who participates in races for the excitement that comes from going fast.

** ''Anime/DragonBallZ'': Burter of the [[QuirkyMinibossSquad Ginyu Force]] believes himself to be the fastest in the universe. Unfortunately for him, Goku proves to be much faster, which is a huge hit to his ego.

* ''Manga/FairyTail'': The aptly named [[MeaningfulName Racer]] of the Oracion Seis guild is this trope to a T. He dresses in racer garments, can summon motorcycles and wheels out of nothing and his magic mainly revolves on speed[[spoiler: or rather, on the perception of speed in others]]. Race is extremely fond of speed to the point of mentioning the topic in casual conversation and his CatchPhrase is "Speed is Good!".

For this character, there's nothing better than moving fast. For any setting where superpowers exist, a character with SuperSpeed is likely to be a Speed Demon.

The number one characteristic of a Speed Demon is the thrill they get out of moving fast whether they are running at high speeds or operating a very fast vehicle. They are likely to be a ChallengeSeeker or SpiritedCompetitor who runs or races for the excitement that comes from going fast. A more negative example is a JerkJock or SmugSuper who is extremely prideful of their speed/driving skills and mocks other characters for being TooSlow. They are likely to think of themselves as the FastestThingAlive and occasionally are fast enough to back up that claim.

A Speed Demon character is also someone who prefers to do even the most mundane of tasks at a quick pace (eating breakfast, doing homework, cleaning the house). Speed Demons are also likely to be very [[DrivesLikeCrazy reckless drivers]].

They may be a LastSecondShowoff. See also BadassDriver, BadassBiker and BikerBabe.

'''Note''': If a character is an arrogant speedster or racer, their speed/driving skills must explicitly be the source of their arrogance. Simply being fast and arrogant with no correlation does not count as this trope. Also, [[LeeroyJenkins a character who simply charges into fights or dangerous situations]] does not qualify for this trope.

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For this character, there's nothing better than moving fast. For any setting where superpowers exist, a character with SuperSpeed is likely to be this.

* Rei from ''Manga/{{Mars}}'' is an exceptionally fast [[BadassBiker speed bike racer]] and he is constantly trying to push himself to go faster and faster whenever he is on the track. In the final race of the story in which he and Kyoko have to switch off, he manages to not only catch up, but [[ChallengeSeeker make a bid for the lead]], despite starting well behind the pack. He and Kyoko are ultimately disqualified since Rei drove far longer than he should (Kyoko had injured herself earlier), but his impressive rally was noticed by a recruiter.

* Anime/{{Scryed}} features Straight Cougar, whose alter ''Radical Good Speed'' lets him achieve dangerously fast speeds from any vehicle (even boots)-- often at the detriment of the vehicle falling apart due to stress when he no longer exerts his powers. He also DrivesLikeCrazy and will insist on taking anything resembling a ramp even if it's out of the way of his path.

** The show features Turbo Duels which are Duel Monsters card games played while riding motorcycles. While riding shotgun with Yusei during his Turbo Duel against Sherry, Akiza finds herself experiencing a new thrill that comes with this high-paced form of dueling and decides to start turbo dueling herself to chase this feeling. This would imply that the entire reason Turbo Duels exists is for duelists who are also Speed Demons.

* ''Manga/OnePunchMan'': Speed of Sound Sonic has great pride in his superhuman speed and assassin skills, which are indeed miles above the average human.

* ''Anime/DigimonAdventure2020'': Episode 45 features Machmon, a motorcycle Digimon who has built his entire identity around racing. Even after the race track he dominated was abandoned, he still continued racing as if he were still in competitions because he knew nothing else.

->"''I live my life a quarter-mile at a time. Nothing else matters, not the mortgage, not the store, not my teammates and all their bullshit. For those ten seconds or less, I'm free.''"
-->--'''Dominic Toretto''', ''Film/TheFastAndTheFurious2001''

** ''VideoGame/SonicRiders'': The game introduces the Babylon Rogues, a trio of thieving birds led by Jet the Hawk. Jet is a master of [[SkySurfing Extreme Gear]] and is [[JerkJock egotistical and arrogant]] in a much more mean-spirited way than Sonic. He believes that it is he, not Sonic, who is The Fastest Thing Alive and frequently challenges the blue hedgehog to prove it.
** The lyrics to "Free", the theme song of ''Sonic Free Riders'' are all about the joy of racing:

* ''VideoGame/{{Suikoden}}'' has Stallion, an elf who often boasts of his SuperSpeed and is one of the fastest characters that can be recruited (in games where he appears).

[[folder:Web Comics]]

** Lucas the Blue Ranger loves three things above all else: his looks, [[TheCasanova beautiful women]] and fast cars. He was a race car driver in the year 3000 and still has a need for speed.
** The MonsterOfTheWeek in "The Last Race" is Dash, a FriendlyRival of Lucas who was a dark take on this trope, being obsessed with racing to the point of total recklessness and disregard for people's lives. Lucas is able to show him the error of his ways and promises to race him again some time in the future.

** ''WesternAnimation/TheLooneyTunesShow'': This gets used against Speed in "Daffy Duck, Esquire". Yosemite Sam sues Speedy for serving pizza that was too hot. Daffy, acting as Sam's legal counsel, argues that if Speedy didn't have the tendency to always do things in a rush, he could have given the pizza some time to cool down before serving it to Sam. [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome Speedy simply gets the case dismissed by revealing that Daffy isn't a real lawyer]].

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[[quoteright:350:[[WesternAnimation/TheLionGuard https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/speedtogalagos.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:"Nobody does fast better than me! ''[[{{Catchphrase}} Huwezi]]''[[note]]"You can't catch me!"[[/note]]!"]]

* ''Franchise/DragonBall'': Burter of the [[QuirkyMinibossSquad Ginyu Force]] believes himself to be the fastest in the universe. Unfortunately for him, Goku proves to be much faster, which is a huge hit to his ego.

** Kevin Levin has shades of this from ''WesternAnimation/Ben10AlienForce'' onwards, where he is obsessed with his CoolCar which he modifies with alien tech to make it one of the fastest cars on the planet.

** [[Characters/Warhammer40000Orks The Orks]] love driving battle vehicles as fast as possible and with reckless abandon, especially those in the Evil Sunz klan. The Orks in Da Kult of Speed, in particular, [[SenseFreak have become addicted to the thrill that comes with speed]]. Regardless of whether they're in a calm environment or the middle of a warzone, they push their vehicles to frightening speeds performing stunts and maneuvers that leave even other Orks thinking they're insane.

*** [[SuperSpeed Speedsters]] like Franchise/TheFlash are known for living life at hyperspeed. They perform a day's worth of tasks in moments and sometimes tend to run ahead, leaving others behind in the dust. Among themselves, they can also talk at high speeds which sounds like gibberish to others.