Ax Crazy: Difference between revisions

 

It is rare for a truly Ax Crazy character to be [[Sociopathic Hero|a protagonist]]. Common as the antagonists in [[Superhero]] and [[Crime and Punishment Series]], often serving as a [[Psycho for Hire]]. If they ''are'' a protagonist, they will most certainly be an [[Anti-Hero]] or [[Villain Protagonist]]. The difference between them and [[Blood Knight]] is this trope is all about killing while the [[Blood Knight]] is only interested in ''fighting''. There is, of course, plenty of room for overlap.

 

{{examples}}

* ''[[Higurashi no Naku Koro ni]]'' has at least one such character at all times in the first season.

** Rena, the "cleaver girl," who, {{spoiler|after going off the deep end, holds her school hostage and very nearly blows it up.}} They can all also be the victims at other points, too.

* Any Diclonius from ''[[Elfen Lied]]'' has the potential to be extremely Ax Crazy, although the show manages to [[The Woobie|raise a lot of sympathy for them]] as well. Lucy, the primary character of the series (when she's not in her cute and harmless "Nyuu" mode) is one of the most frightening characters you will ever meet. Her [[Establishing Character Moment|introduction scene]] has her violently slaughtering people left and right with her vectors at a lab while wearing [[Full-Frontal Assault|nothing but a helmet]].

** Aside from the Dicloni, there's at least three human characters that qualify, showing a sadism that's quite frankly terrifying: [[The Bully|Tomo]], [[Psycho for Hire|Bando]] and [[Complete Monster|The Unknown Man]]. With guys like these, it's no wonder why [[Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds|Lucy]] thinks [[Humans Are the Real Monsters]]...

* ''[[Big Order]]'': Kurenai Rin.

* Saionji and Nanami fall into this during their respective duels with the titular Utena of ''[[Revolutionary Girl Utena]]''.

* Sakurako and sometimes Katsuragi from ''[[Sakura Gari]]''.

* Many a villain from ''[[Berserk]]'' such as Femto ( {{spoiler|or Griffith}}), and Guts evil side.

 

== Comic Books ==

* "The Female" and "The Frenchman" from ''[[The Boys]]'' and [[Wolverine]] from ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]]'' - all "good" guys!

** Don't forget Sabretooth, the [[Psycho for Hire|psychopathic]] bestial assassin who, unlike his "good" counterpart Wolverine, fully embraces his murderous and feral instincts.

* The villainous Psyko, one of ''[[Sleepwalker]]'''s most dangerous adversaries, more than lives up to his name. He was a [[Serial Killer]] ''before'' being transformed into a demonic creature, and after that using his powers to make everyone else around him [[Brainwashed and Crazy]], including Sleepwalker himself.

* Galvatron, of ''[[Transformers]]'', is frequently thought of as Ax Crazy. This is perhaps unfair. He is certainly ''insane''--think [[Evil Overlord|Megatron]], but [[Large Ham|(more?) operatic]]. He is not Ax Crazy, though...at first. His sanity degenerates markedly, seemingly after the destruction of Unicron, however; a popular [[Fanon]] theory wasn't ''quite'' made canon in Simon Furman's run on the G1 comics. By the end of the series (more accurately, the penultimate issue)...well, when you have a particle cannon that can blow apart even other creations of [[Planet Eater|Unicron]] in a single shot, but think of [http://www.tfwiki.info/wiki/Image:Galvatroniiteeth.jpg this] as a good battlefield tactic, you have a good idea of how Galvatron thinks at this point...

* Played around with in ''Punisher War Journal Annual #1'' (2008)... the [[Big Bad]]'s plot to {{spoiler|siphon Frank Castle's psychosis and mind for sale as an intoxicant in gaseous form}} backfires when everyone exposed ends up "tripping" on the Punisher's mind... and the sheer messed-up-ness. The difference is that he is used to it even after he inhales {{spoiler|his own psychosis}} and can still function, whereas the "super" wannabes that would have been barring his way become incapacitated, babbling wrecks. In general, some writers make him lean in this direction, and the ''Punisher War Journal'' series has recently hinted at this.

* ''[[Deadpool]]'' demands to know why he is not on this page, seeing as he effectively combines this trope with [[Bunny Ears Lawyer]], [[Sociopathic Hero]], [[Breaking the Fourth Wall]], and many more.

* [[Daddy's Little Villain|Sin]], the [[Red Skull]]'s daughter.

** And her equally psychopathic boyfriend Crossbones. In modern Marvel the two are basically Mickey and Mallory Knox as supervillains, with all that entails. In their first story arc they go on a non stop killing spree across America: Because they CAN.

* Many of [[Darkseid]]'s minions qualify

* Massacre, ''Batwing'''s archenemy. Batwing describes him as "a man who worships death"—and that might be a little too kind.

 

== Fan Works ==

* {{spoiler|Daemon}} from the ''[[Tamers Forever Series]]'' could be the posterboy for this trope, a nigh unstoppable psychopath who is quite litterally ''fuelled'' by his own hatred, often exploding into violent rages and laughing maniacally at the sight of others in pain.

* Joe Dark from ''[[Clash of the Elements]]'' is a very prime example of this trope {{spoiler|and this very trait of his is amplified immensely after he gains the Dark King's powers.}}

 

== Film ==

* Lord Shen from ''[[Kung Fu Panda 2]]''.

* Lola of ''[[The Loved Ones]]''.

* Mrs. Tweedy in ''[[Chicken Run]]'' takes this trope literally when she sees the chickens escaping and suffers a [[Villainous Breakdown|breakdown]].

* Rippner in ''[[Red Eye (film)|Red Eye]]'' following Lisa stabbing a pen through his neck.

* Loki, the [[Big Bad|main villain]] of ''[[The Avengers (film)|The Avengers]]'', announces his arrival on Earth by killing a bunch of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents with {{spoiler|the evil spear of doom that the Chitauri gave him}}. He then proceeds to kill a lot more people over the course of the movie. A ''lot'' more.

* Hexina from the 1993 film ''[[Hexed]]''.

 

== Literature ==

* According to the narrator of ''[[Hell's Children]]'' by Andrew Boland, Acheri is one of these. In that moment, when survival is the only thing worth thinking about, only a fool would tax there mind with grievances of the past and Acheri was no fool, axe crazy as hell, yes, but no fool.

* The ''[[Discworld]]'' series by [[Terry Pratchett]] often has these as villains.

** Carcer, a sadistic sociopath in ''Night Watch''

* ''[[The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde]]'' - If Edward Hyde isn't Ax Crazy I don't know who is. He does pretty horrible things throughout the book, but the most gruesome of his deeds is the murder of one of the leaders of parliament. He has completely no reason for it, no provocation, and bashing in the face of old gentleman isn't really anything that sane men would do. As described in the book:

{{quote|The spirits of Hell woke up in me to their full rage. I hit the defenceless body within intoxicating ecstasy and I enjoyed every single hit. Then I ran along the lit street still full of this amphibious euphoria, gloating about my crime and at the same time planning lightheadedly new ones, although listening carefully in case for the steps of chasing avenger. With a song on his lips Hyde mixed the potion, and upon drinking it he drank the toast of dead man.}}

* Jack Torrance from [[Stephen King]]'s ''[[The Shining]]'', especially the [[Jack Nicholson]] [[The Film of the Book|version]], who uses an actual ax instead of a croquet mallet when he finally goes over the edge. "Heeeeeere's Johnny!"

* [[Creepy Child|Patrick Hockstetter]] and [[Jerk Jock|Henry Bowers]] from the [[Stephen King]] novel ''[[IT]]''. Played sickeningly straight with Claude Heroux.

* Dwayne Hoover in [[Kurt Vonnegut]]'s ''[[Breakfast of Champions]]'' winds up going on an insane rampage, which the author/narrator attributes to the influence of "bad chemicals."

* ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'''s Gregor Clegane. You know you're insane when even [[Blood Knight|The Hound]] is scared of you.

** Interestingly enough, Arya Stark (a survivor of one of Gregor's murderous rampages through south-central Westeros) seems headed in this direction. [[Sociopathic Hero|She's one of the good guys, though.]] It's a real pity that she never got the chance to give Gregor a taste of ''valar morghulis'' ( {{spoiler|High Valyrian for "Everyone Dies"}}) before his death.

* [[Malus Darkblade]] from the ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]]: Deamons Curse'' series is a shining example of Ax Crazy. He eats the heart of a previous captor, makes his oldest brothers face into a mask, and murders his father for a knife. And that's before the deamon stole his soul.

** Note that this is not in any way unusual in Druchii culture, for example, that father of his tortured him for about a week for some reason. And he really, really needed the magic knife, and didn't know who had it until he barged in and started killing people about it. The others had also tried/succeeding in doing rather nasty things to him in the past.

* When Jack, the main character of ''[[The Chronicles of Professor Jack Baling]]'', gets his hands on a [[Disintegrator Ray]] capable of converting tables {{spoiler|or people}} into a pile of dust, it doesn’t work out well.

 

* There have been many episodes of ''[[Law & Order]]'' dealing with ax crazies.

** Drusilla. Drusilla's craziness is a result of the mental trauma she experienced as Angelus tortured her and made her watch while he tortured and killed her family.

** Angelus, who liked to recreate the slaughter of his own family whenever he got bored.

** In the season 3 finale {{spoiler|[[Sealed Evil in a Can|Sethius]] quickly proves utterly insane, killing the vampires around him purely because he can. He intends to replace humanity with vampires because he ''wants'' them to run out of food and descend into violent chaos. He's bad enough that Ingrid and the Count actually follow the plan instead of scheming so they can take him down.}}

* ''[[Rizzoli and Isles]]'' features Hoyt.

 

== Music ==

* Referenced in [[Pink Floyd]]'s "One of My Turns" from ''[[The Wall]]''. As Pink proceeds to demolish his apartment in front of a groupie, he screams the following:

{{quote|''Run to the bedroom!

''God, my best friend's on a shooting spree

''Stop it, Debbie! You're embarrassing me!}}

* At least one character in every single song off Nick Cave's ''Murder Ballads'', but especially notably Lottie in the Curse Of Millhaven

* In the video to Babes in Toyland's "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uU1ANLb4QPY He's My Thing]," a [[Creepy Doll]] mutilates another [[Creepy Doll]] out of jealousy.

{{quote|''Malcolm solves his problems [[Chainsaw Good|with a chainsaw]]

''And he never has the same problem twice!}}

 

== Newspaper Comics ==

** Another arc had Steve being the defense-lawyer for a crazed elderly female murderer who "signed" court documents by chopping at them with her axe.

* Pig's Guard Duck from ''[[Pearls Before Swine]]'' has this played for laughs.

 

== Tabletop Games ==

** In the fourth edition of the game, Gruumsh is changed from the axe crazy god of the orcs, to simply being the ''god'' of axe crazy-ness.

** In addition to Gruumsh, ''[[Forgotten Realms]]'' has Garagos, a practically nonsentient deity of bloodlust and destruction.

** "Madman" actually had its own entry in the 2nd Edition ''Ravenloft Monster Compendium''.

* In ''[[Talislanta]]'', any [[Proud Warrior Race Guy|Ahazu]] in the throes of "shan-ya" counts. Actually, most Ahazu are [[Blood Knight|pretty edgy to begin with]].

* Even going beyond [[With Great Power Comes Great Insanity|the Great Curse]], it's possible for the ''[[Exalted]]'' to reach these lofty heights. Take Raksi, Queen of Fangs, who Exalted in her pre-teen years and was forced to flee into [[Reality Is Out to Lunch|the Wyld]] during the Usurpation. She came out changed in several ways. Way number one? She took the city of Speremin by force and renamed it "The City of a Thousand Golden Delights," bred an army of ape-men [[But You Screw One Goat!|herself]], ran up a reputation as a cannibal sorceress queen among the local tribes, decided to ''cement'' it by [[Eats Babies|making babies her favorite meal]], and now spends her days desperately trying to learn the secrets of a style of sorcery ''way'' beyond her means and willing to do ''anything'' that will get her closer to revelation. The other way? [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|Her fingers now bend backwards]].

* [[Our Orcs Are Different|Orcs]] in ''[[Pathfinder]]''. [[Half-Human Hybrid|Half-orcs]], however, are not necessarily so; in fact, the one half-orc iconic (so far) is [[Neutral Good]].

* The ''[[Rifts]]'' RPG's Crazys are just as easily Ax Crazy as they are batshit insane.

** Almost all demons under the rule of Belhalhar act the same way, to the extent that getting them to stop fighting is quite hard.

** The [[Lizard Folk|Maru]] a race of crocodile people almost all act the same way as directed by their god Kr'Thon'Chh {{spoiler|he and Kor are one and the same god, despite many humans fear that the Maru follow a demon}}

 

== Theatre ==

* The eponymous hero of [[Sophocles]]' ''[[Ajax]]'' goes on a murdering rampage of sheep and cattle after Athena strikes him with madness. It's pretty clear that he was intending a rampage against Odysseus and the Greek troops anyways, but it would have been slightly less [[Break the Haughty|humiliating]].

 

== Video Games ==

** His backstory reveals that he was the first Magitek Knight, but the process was imperfect, and that he became insane after the process, which is heavily implied to involve brain surgery, meaning that the Empire literally broke his brain.

* And in a vein rather similar to Kefka, there's ''[[BlazBlue]]'''s own [[Faux Affably Evil|Hazama]]/[[Complete Monster|Terumi]] [[Troll|Yuki]]. He trapped the world in over 170 time loops of 100 years each through which the world, during just the first 10 years, got ravaged by [[Orochi|an enormous, hydra-like monster]], seemingly because it amused him to do so. This is also arguably one of the ''less'' horrifying acts he has done for simple lulz, soley because the result of it was a continuously repeated impersonal and indiscriminate mass-slaughter on over 50% of the human race... Y'see, it's not until Hazama gets personal with people that his maniacal depravity ''really'' shines through.

{{quote|You'll ''never'' get your hands on my brother ever again, you [[This Is for Emphasis, Bitch|bitch]]! [[Laughing Mad|HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!]]}}

** And there's also Arakune, the [[Laughing Mad]] [[The Unintelligible|unintelligible]] [[Eldritch Abomination]] who will [[Implacable Man|never stop hunting for]] the Azure, and kill and/or [[I Am a Humanitarian|consume]] anyone who gets in his way.

* In the first ''[[Mechwarrior]]'' game, you can get pilots to help you in your group, each comes with a picture and a quote along with their stats, before you hire them. One of them is Killer, wearing a ski mask, with the quote "I want to burn villages and eat dead, burnt bodies, kill, kill, kill!"

** He gets an homage in ''Mechwarrior 2: Mercenaries'' in the form of Jake "Killer" Ives, a cheerful psychopath who was also a cheap, effective pilot, noted in his hiring profile to be a sadist bar none, with [[Humongous Mecha]] as his tool of choice for hurting other people.

* From ''The Mark of Kri'' we have Tati. This deserves special mention because her older brother [[Proud Warrior Race Guy|Rau]] is the one with the ax, but he's remarkably calm and level headed. And he never speaks in anything except battle cries. {{spoiler|Unless Tati turns to [[The Dark Side]], in which he will utter her name once before Tati and the forces of darkness slaughter him.}} Tati, on the other hand, is ''very'' vocal and has moments of exceeding maliciousness. The way she slaughters single enemies with her knives looks more painful than anything Rao does with his ax, and considering the body count Rao racks up with it, that's saying something.

* Barbatos Goetia of ''[[Tales of Destiny]] 2'' is also an example of Ax Crazy trying to prove that he's the strongest out there, which caused him to be written out of history in the first place. It's not just his personality that is insane, his power is also insane that he can even be invulnerable against magic whenever someone tries to cast one. He also wields an ax. If you want more of his Ax Crazy stuffs, just listen him pull an [[Evil Laugh]] or his [[Kiai]].

* ''[[Batman: Arkham Asylum]]'' has {{spoiler|Quincy Sharp}}, who is by all appearances normal when you speak to him except in the {{spoiler|Spirit of Arkham}}, where it can be seen that he is an absolutely ''insane'' [[Knight Templar]].

** Let's not forget the main villains of the plot, some of the absolute craziest of Batman's rogues gallery. [[Serial Killer|Zsasz]], [[Monster Clown|Joker]], [[I Am a Humanitarian|Killer Croc]]...

* The Burning Blade clan in ''[[Warcraft]] II'' and ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' deserve a mention, as a clan of Ax Crazies that were held in check by a large group of ogre enforcers. The Horde "was not willing to employ them except in the most extreme cases, for fear that they might turn on other clans or even each other".

** ''Warcraft III'' has the Alliance rifleman (well, rifledwarf) revealed as this if you [[Stop Poking Me|click on one often enough]].

* Lilarcor the talking sword in ''[[Baldur's Gate]] II''. It's a fairly powerful sword that houses the soul of a bloodthirsty idiot. Every bit of Lilarcor's dialogue consists of it whining about how its not killing anyone at the moment and asking you to hurry up and kill someone with it.

* ''[[Dark Souls]]'' has Lautrec, who is a loner vagabond who uses and kills {{spoiler|Anastacia, the fire keeper of Firelink Shrine.}} The Darkwraiths you meet in game became Ax Crazy after becoming [[Drunk with Power]] and undead that have lost all their remaining humanity are insane, violent shells of who they once were. That said, some hollows you find are docile and often huddle themselves into corners, crying.

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* [[Karate Bears]] are [http://www.karatebears.com/search/label/axe pretty fond of axes.]

* ''[[A Broken Winter]]'' introduces us very early on to Kuroda's wife, who killed their son (according to [[Word of God]]) as a protest against killing children. In their words, "Logic at its finest". She also killed the family dog and tried to kill her husband too.

 

== Web Original ==

* The actress playing Juliet in ''[[The Demented Cartoon Movie]]'' throws a bomb at her Romeo. After being told to not do it again, she goes crazy and throws a bomb at the replacement Romeo.

* In the fan-made ''Zelda'' film ''Sage of Shadows'', the [[True Villain]], Davik, is fiendishly intelligent, and yet also a complete psychopath, poisoning his own sister and also gleefully murdering Link's parents in a very brutal fashion, as well as showcasing even after he lost his hand, and he plans on [[Omnicidal Maniac|destroying the Cycle of Eternity]] due to psychopathic hatred of it. His voice actor, Michael Stevenson, has even [[Word of God|stated]] that Davik is a villain comparable to [[The Joker]] in terms of mysteriousness and insanity.

* It would be easier to list the characters in ''[[Dark Dream Chronicle]]'' that aren't.

* Some supporting characters in ''[[Equestria Chronicles (Roleplay)|Equestria Chronicles]]'' are ''extremely'' bloodthrsty for magical talking ponies.

* The ''[[SCP Foundation]]'' has [http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-076 SCP-076], [http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-953 SCP-953] and [http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-973 SCP-973].

* Plinkett from ''[[RedLetterMedia]]''.{{context}}

 

== Western Animation ==

* Rico from ''[[The Penguins of Madagascar]]''. Lampshaded by Skipper.

* Vicky on ''[[The Fairly OddParents]]''.

** And Trixie in the episode "Just The Two Of Us".

** [[George Washington|MUST CHOP WOOD!]]

* ''[[Thundercats 2011]]'' has Kaynar, a [[Giggling Villain]] [[Psycho for Hire]] recruited as one of [[Big Bad]] Mumm-Ra's new [[Four-Star Badass|generals]]... when they bust him out of ''prison.'' His [[Establishing Character Moment]] sees him strapped to a gurney and heavily restrained just to be moved to solitary confinement, which he earned after killing [[Serial Killer|eleven inmates]]. He's pretty sanguine about his punishment:

{{quote|'''Kaynar:''' At least I'll have the voices in my head to talk to. }}

 

== Real Life ==

** On a practical note, an axe (an instrument used in many tasks around the Iron Age home, such as splitting firewood and roughing-in carpentry) would likely be the largest and most fearsome handheld potential instrument of destruction found lying around the home of your average working man in Socrates' day. Where a housewife-gone-crazy may opt for a [[Knife Nut|kitchen knife]] or rolling pin, the man of the house would likely reach for his favorite logsplitter when he decided it was time to split heads instead.

* The [[Too Soon|real-life incident]] involving a Japanese high school girl [[Self-Made Orphan|who beat her father to death with a hammer]], that led to the cancellation/preemption of select episodes of ''Higurashi Kai'' and ''[[School Days]]'', i.e. the infamous "Nice Boat" incident.

** Greyhound: Where will you [[Incredibly Lame Pun|be heading]]?

* What's scarier than Ax Crazy? Ax Crazy ''[[The Caligula|in charge of a country]]''. How about a list of some deranged dictators?

** [[Emperor Caligula]]

** Idi Amin

* From Wikipedia's entry on [[wikipedia:Strange Piece of Paradise|"Strange Piece of Paradise"]]: "Terri Jentz and her friend Shayna Weiss are Yale students cycling across America in 1977. After stopping to camp at Cline Falls State Park in Oregon, they are brutally attacked when a man runs over their tent with a pick-up truck and assaults them with an ax. Despite their injuries, both survive. Weiss suffers partial blindness and memory loss. Jentz, her body scarred, bears her injuries mostly in guilt, anger, and fear." Moreover, when she went back to investigate the incident, Jentz discovered a) hardly any investigation had taken place, despite b) most people in town having a fairly good idea who did it, a man locally notorious for violent acts, most recently having put his girlfriend in the hospital the previous week. And he was still on the loose. [[Paranoia Fuel|Have a good night, children.]]

* Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the head of Al-Qaeda in Iraq. He was considered Ax Crazy ''[[Even Evil Has Standards|by Al-Qaeda standards]]''. Shortly before his death by airstrike, US intelligence intercepted messages from Al-Qaeda leadership essentially telling Zarqawi to tone it down, as his penchant for [[Off with His Head|decapitations]] was turning other insurgents against Al-Qaeda and pushing them into the US camp.

{{quote|Heaven Brings forth endless things to benefit man.

Man has nothing with which to repay Heaven.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Tropes of Legend]]

[[Category:Madness Tropes]]

[[Category:Horror Tropes]]

[[Category:Older Than Feudalism]]