Beware the Nice Ones/Playing With

Basic Trope: A peaceful, mild or otherwise seemingly harmless character is capable of deadly anger or surprisingly effective retribution if sufficiently provoked.


 * Straight: After experiencing a prolonged period of bullying and torture at the hands of Emperor Evulz, mild-mannered Bob snaps and beats the crap out of Evulz, shocking and terrifying the villain.
 * Exaggerated: After being bullied by Evulz, mild-mannered Bob snaps, builds a death ray, and destroys Evulz's home city from orbit.
 * Justified: Although Evulz isn't aware of this, Bob is actually the alter-ego of a superhero with devastatingly effective combat skills.
 * Inverted:
 * Bob, a bullying blow-hard, is in fact incapable of fighting for himself if provoked.
 * Jerk With a Heart of Gold
 * Subverted: After being bullied by Evulz, Bob snaps and fights back... only to be easily floored by Evulz.
 * After being bullied by Evulz, Bob starts to show rage... but then calms down, shakes his head and refuses to fight.
 * Doubly Subverted:
 * ... which was all part of Bob's cunning plan to lull Evulz into a false sense of security so that Bob could enact his revenge later, and in a more devastating fashion than merely getting beaten up.
 * After being bullied by Evulz, Bob shows signs of snapping... but then calms down. Then, he quietly and efficiently beats seven shades of hell out of Evulz.
 * Bob gets neck-lifted. He icepicks Evulz in the liver.
 * Parodied: The slight that Bob is reacting to is ludicrously trivial, and his retribution drastically over-the-top.
 * Deconstructed:
 * In lowering himself to Evulz's level and fighting Evulz on his terms, Bob has lost the moral high ground and has thus lost anyway, or proven himself to be an even worse villain than Evulz.
 * Alternatively: Bob's 'niceness' is merely a facade, and he was worse than Evulz all along.
 * Reconstructed: ... However, sometimes we must lower ourselves to defend ourselves from threats.
 * Averted: Bob simply resigns himself to the bullying and lets it continue.
 * Enforced: "We have to show that just because Bob is nice, he's not a complete weakling; otherwise people will be turned off from him. Let's show him beat up some bully to prove the point."
 * Lampshaded: "Alright, Evulz -- this time, you've pushed me too far!"
 * Invoked: "Looks like Bob's getting pissed -- if he explodes, we can use that!"
 * Defied: "Are you crazy? You never pick on the quiet guy! They're always secretly capable of kicking your ass, and if you provoke him that's just what he'll do!"
 * Discussed: "Funny how it's the quiet ones who turn into badasses when they're pushed too far."
 * Conversed: "I knew he was a badass, deep down!"
 * Played For Laughs: Bob has a Wimp Fight and looks ridiculous as he goes after his tormentors, putting Evulz on the ground through sheer accident, and/or because Evulz is laughing too hard to fight back.
 * Played For Drama:
 * Bob's oppressor is so much stronger, crueler, etc. than himself that any defiance will be met with terrible retribution, but he's been pushed so far that he has to strike back. The Cavalry may arrive to save him, but then again it might not..
 * Bob, trembling, waits until Evulz's back is turned. Bob pulls a clasp-knife and stabs Evulz until the blade breaks off in his spine.

Could you head back to Beware the Nice Ones, please? This page is starting to annoy me, and you wouldn't like me when I'm ang...er, annoyed.